Village of Greenfield, OH

It’s a new year. What are some of Greenfield’s goals in 2024? – One of the big goals we have for this year is working on trying to attract developers to Greenfield for housing developments. We recently had a meeting with the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA). We can partner with them to help bring in some affordable housing units to Greenfield. There are several tax credits available, too, to help accomplish this. I’m thinking along the lines of Sycamore Circle. Those are nice homes and it’s a nice community, and a great contribution to the Greenfield community. We would love to duplicate what Sycamore Circle has done, because not only are we going to have more businesses looking to locate in Greenfield, there are new businesses arising not far from Greenfield. We believe we could attract people to come live in our community.

 

We are going to be working hard this year on several different aspects of housing, including more up-scale housing and have already been approached about property outside the corporation limits that would work well for this. This additional housing work also includes our downtown buildings and the 2nd and 3rd floors of some. To accomplish any of this, though, we are going to have to attract some money, developers, and development. 

 

Another priority, as it always will be, is our infrastructure. We talk about it at every meeting. It may not be the most exciting thing to talk about, but it is a necessity. On that note, a project submitted for funding last October that we thought we were an absolute no on, it turns out, we are ranked at the top of the list, meaning funding for this project is a really good possibility. This is for infrastructure work for Jefferson Street to tackle the tremendous I & I (inflow and infiltration) occurring there. If Greenfield is awarded funding for this, more details on this will follow. It’s good news. We continue to win opportunities for our community enabling us to continue to improve failing infrastructure. 

 

Something else we are working on is our wells. We have 12 and eight of those wells work. Of those eight, the newest one is 50 years old. For many years this is something that has been put by the side, but we have started looking for test boring locations for the placement of a high-efficiency well that could likely produce as much water as our eight current wells do. As with previous administrations, we are firm believers in giving back a community better than what we received it. If that’s not our motto, then we fail the citizens of Greenfield.

 

Another goal is to get the water tower painted, which hasn’t been done for decades, but it is something the EPA needs us to get done. This project is currently being put together.  

 

There are some new businesses that have opened – CiCi’s Snack Shack, CC’s Eats and Treats, The Angry Cactus, and Taco Bell have all opened recently. There’s another restaurant looking to open in the downtown this year.  We want to continue to invite entrepreneurs out there who are maybe sitting on the sideline wondering if this is their time or not. Just reach out. Give us a call and we’ll see if we can find you a place here in Greenfield and help make your idea a success for you. 

 

You can reach City Manager Todd Wilkin by email at citymanager@greenfieldohio.net