For nearly two months, local officials have been aware that JobsOhio and Ohio SE would be supporting the new Winchester Industrial Park with a $4.2 million JobsOhio grant. Last week, the news was made official with the announcement from J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio President and CEO.
“To attract more opportunity to Adams County, we and our partners are working on improving site inventory to ensure businesses can easily succeed here,” said Nauseef. “The assistance will support needed infrastructure improvements to the Winchester Industrial Park, making it an ideal location for future investment and job creation.”
The site of the new industrial park is located on Dorsey Road in Winchester Township. The land was purchased in July 2018 by the Adams County Community Improvement Corporation for $217,398.00 from the Winchester Church of Christ in Christian Union.
According to JobsOhio, the overall investment includes water, sewer, and an access road to the park. Adams County plans to make regional sewer and water upgrades, which will improve the excess capacities at the park. Water capacity will be increased by a 12″ water main extension along State Route 32 from the Village of Seman and will be supported by a 200,000 gallon elevated tank. In addition, a new 700,000 GPD capacity wastewater treatment plant will be built off-site to add capacity to the Village of Winchester’s municipal sewer system as well as supporting the industrial park. The JobsOhio grant will fund extensions of water and sewer to the park boundaries. In addition, new roadwork will be constructed to avoid residential and recreational areas and allow for a safe turn radius for truck traffic.
State Representative Brian Baldridge, who helped get the project started when he was a County Commissioner, commended stakeholders in the region. “The Winchester Industrial Park is just another great example of JobsOhio partnering with local communities to stimulate economic development in the 90th House District,” said Rep. Baldridge. “I commend JobsOhio, the Board of County Commissioners, Adams County CIC, Adams Regional Water, and the Village of Winchester for this united effort. This is a significant investment for Adams County and our region.”
“The Winchester Industrial park has been a goal of ours for a long time and we are excited to see this dream become a reality. The park is a key asset to bringing business into Adams County,” said the Adams County CIC. “In addition to the enterprise zone the Winchester Industrial Park is located entirely within an opportunity zone in Adams County’s northwestern quadrant. Once infrastructure is in place, we are confident that this will be a springboard that attracts more development into our community.”
The Adams County Community Improvement Corporation is governed by a board of public officials and private citizens. According to the organizations website, the members are: Ty R. Pell, Russ Brewer, Randy Brodt, Joseph Wright, Jim Young, Steve Ryan, Diane Ward, Barbara Moore and Holly Johnson.
The CIC was formed nearly two decades ago and has owned the industrial park located on State Route 41 South of West Union since its inception. Growth for the West Union complex has been slow after the property was purchased in the early 2000’s from the Copeland Corporation for $500,000. Of the four entities that have been built on the site, one is government and the other two brought in competitors to complete against an already fragile local business climate. The property consists of 36 acres and all planned improvements are expected to be complete by the end of year 2023. According to JobsOhio, the industrial park will be a shovel-ready site with all due diligence studies completed, water, sewer, and electric to the site and roadwork in place to serve the new tenants.
