SIDNEY – Sidney city officials met with Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) Director Lydia Mihalik to review the history and the plan for the old Wagner manufacturing plant and discussed other projects happening around Shelby County on Monday, Sept. 12.
Jim Hill, the executive director of the Sidney-Shelby Economic Partnership, conducted a slideshow presentation about the Wagner site which included background and history of the site with a drone video showing the extensive damage to the property.
There was also a timeline showing the plan for demolition, remediation and redevelopment with the estimated project completion in quarter one of 2025. Burgess and Niple, an engineering and architecture firm, will lead the cleanup and remediation process after a Request For Quote (RFQ) process.
As for the future of the site, the plan is for it to be redeveloped as a business incubator, and The Montrose Group, LLC has started an incubator feasibility study that began last month.
The total cost for the project is estimated at $4,565,000, and the cost should be covered with city and county funds, the capital budget, the Shelby County brownfield allocation, and the ODOD brownfield competitive grant.
Mihalik encouraged the officials to reach out to her office if they need any more funding.
“Gov. DeWine and Lt. Gov. Husted are essentially making good on that commitment to reinvest in our community. It’s been a real pleasure for me to be able to see these projects happen and be able to work with locals to get that done, because they’ve obviously been hanging out for a while. And it’s a huge burden on a community to have to deal with, to keep it safe but then also clean it up,” Mihalik said.
Other projects discussed included the extension of the bike path which will connect Sidney to communities as far south as Hamilton, downtown revitalization, SEMCORP and Cargill building a new soybean processing facility. Challenges were also mentioned, like the need for more housing and childcare.
“All you have to do is see if we’ve got something that’s hanging out there. If you’ve got a gap in something, we may have resources to be able to fill it. If there are other things that are vexing that you need some assistance with so we can continue to help support you and your efforts to want to make this place a high-quality community,” Mihalik said.
