The projects include: the new Butler Tech advanced manufacturing and aviation centers totaling $15 million; nearly $3 million to MetroParks to complete some gaps in the Great Miami River trail and improve Davidson Woods Parks in Hanover Twp., $1.5 million for Oxford’s one-stop-shop for social services, in partnership with the Talawanda Oxford Pantry & Social Services and Family Resource Center and $150,000 to Access Counseling for a homeless engagement center.
Butler Tech Superintendent/CEO Jon Graft told the Journal-News “it’s official” and the new advanced technology training centers in Hamilton and Middletown should be open by August 2025.
“We’re very excited and honored that the commissioners support this vision that we have for both the aviation and advanced manufacturing facilities,” Graft said. “It will be an opportunity for us to transform the way the workforce is created and how we can better our communities by having a skilled workforce to meet the needs.”
Butler Tech originally pitched the commissioners seeking $24 million — $12 million for each facility — in the summer of 2021. The commissioners received $74.4 million in ARPA funds from the federal government and decided to share the windfall. They received requests totaling more than $200 million.
The proposal outlined future workforce predictions:
- 47% of U.S. jobs could be phased out in the future because of technological advances
- 65% of high school students are predicted to work in jobs that don’t yet exist
- 75% of the companies that are expected to be in the top 500 by 2027 haven’t yet been established
The commissioners awarded $8 million for the advanced manufacturing center on the Miami University campus in Hamilton and $7 million for the advanced aviation center at Hook Field in Middletown. Graft said Butler Tech has kicked in $2 million per facility for a total of $19 million.
The college is covering operating costs — the commissioners were adamant they would not pay for ongoing expenses. The annual cost for new staff and operations at the Hamilton campus is $755,440 and $769,870 for the aviation center.
They are working with Miami to renovate North Hall, which is at the corner of University Boulevard and Knightsbridge Drive.
Both educational institutions have “begun having conversations about how we would collaboratively work in that space by offering both Butler Tech programs and Miami University programs simultaneously, that’s the real advantage of working with Miami is that we’re going to have opportunity where high school students will be taking college coursework at the same time.”
About $2 million of the total cost is for purchasing “state of the art” equipment and advanced technologies, like the “Internet of Things” which is how machines talk and connect with one another and “how human beings can extract all of the data related to the connectivity of those machines to work smarter.”
The advanced aviation center will be “ground-up construction” of a 25,000 square-foot building on airport property with 10,000- to 15,000-square feet of hangar space. He said the equipment will cost $1.5 million to $2 million and they have an idea what they need but want input from experts.
They are working with potential business partners “to identify the skill set they want for the employee pipeline and then obviously we’ll reverse engineer that skill set in order to identify the equipment we’ll need to put it in place,” Graft said.
The first step will be to put out requests for qualifications to hire architects and others to get the designs of the buildings finalized and out to bid. He said he expects construction on the aviation facility to start next spring and perhaps sooner for the manufacturing center since the structure already exists.
Park projects get go-ahead
MetroParks of Butler County wanted $4.5 million for trail system improvements and $5 million to create scenic overlooks in nine parks in the rural reaches of the county. The commissioners agreed to $2.5 million for the trail extension and $450,000 for the rural parks.
Executive Director Jackie O’Connell said the trail project will fill in the gap in the Timberhill to Monroe segment, the last 3.1 mile gap through Lemon and Fairfield townships. The first step will be to get the engineering work completed. They already started doing title searches to see what land they might need to acquire, “the engineering piece is going to be the heaviest lift.”
She said they plan to be very deliberate when it comes to the Davidson Woods project by holding public input sessions, because that property is simply nature right now and they want to know how neighbors want it developed.
“We were thinking some trails out there, parking areas, an overlook, $450,000 doesn’t go very far when you’re opening up a new property,” she said. “What we want to see is what the people want out there. It has got beautiful vistas we can’t wait to open up to the rest of the county, but we know it holds deep sentiment for people in that area.”
She said their planning director left to head Warren County’s park system, so both projects will take a little longer than they’d like, so construction definitely won’t start until next year.
There was a bit of a snafu with Oxford’s $1.5 million ARPA grant. The city originally asked the commissioners to fund a one-stop social services center — a partnership with the Talawanda Oxford Pantry & Social Services (TOPSS) and Family Resource Center — and then swapped projects mid-stream.
When the commissioners voted on the second batch of ARPA awards in December they approved Oxford’s updated project, one that involved adding a wing for seniors at the TRI Community Center and facilitating the new Amtrak station. It involved moving Talawanda staffers out of the Nelson Morrow building that blocks easy access to the train platform.
After a public outcry, Oxford officials reversed course and made the one-stop social services center the top priority again. The commissioners asked for more details on the TOPSS proposal and now have approved the agreement.
Assistant Oxford City Manager Jessica Greene told the Journal-News the seniors are staying put and they are working to relocate school staffers to ensure the Amtrak stop becomes a reality.
“What we’re doing now is letting the seniors stay in that building and exploring new options for moving Talawanda out of the Nelson Morrow building, so we can continue with Amtrak,” Greene said. “I have every confidence that between Miami and Talawanda and us we will find something to make it work.”
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