T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association Executive Director Vicki King-Maple shares details with Belmont County commissioners and residents about the successful partnership the organization has with the county.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Connecting communities with resources — that is the mission of the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association, and county leaders and residents learned more about the organization and its partnerships this week.

OMEGA Executive Director Vicki King-Maple visited the Belmont County Board of Commissioners to provide information to commissioners and to county residents.

“Honestly, we have a real treat today. I know we refer to OMEGA quite a bit during our weekly meetings, and it’s great to have them here today to really kind of speak to the good work that they do. They do phenomenal work for Belmont County,” Commissioner J.P. Dutton said.

King-Maple took the floor to discuss the relationships and collaborations she and her team built with not only Belmont County but all of the counties OMEGA serves. The 10 Ohio counties are Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Guernsey, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Muskingum and Tuscarawas.

She said the purpose of her presentation was to demonstrate what the collaboration between OMEGA and Belmont County looks like and what the future holds for that relationship.

According to its website, ​​OMEGA is a collaborative body of member governments that serves as a facilitator between state and federal government agencies and local entities to provide opportunities in economic and community development through networking, education, planning, research and allocation of resources.

The organization’s main objective is to foster a cooperative effort in planning, development and implementation of local and regional plans, programs and projects that will increase the economic activity in the area and improve the quality of life of its residents.

“Basically the highlights of what the constituents need to know is who to contact — what are those first lines of contact? And then again, how can we continue to collaborate?” King-Maple said. “And we’ve done a short program called ‘Know Us Before You Need Us’. I think it’s important to understand, we’ve highlighted OMEGA’s mission here. But so often what you hear us say is, we connect communities to resources. That’s our mantra. That’s what we do, and how we do so is primarily through those particular funding resources, a lot of federal and state funding entities. And then the question becomes, if these are your partners, if these are the resources to which you connect us, how do we become better connected?”

She added that it’s primarily through strategic planning that OMEGA does.

“At OMEGA we’re all planners, we are all researchers. We’d love to hear your ideas first, do a lot of listening. So this is really kind of unusual for us to be presenting and talking more than listening because, typically, the roles are reversed. Whether we’re meeting with you, whether we’re meeting with a mayor, a township trustee, whatever the case might be, we like to hear what’s on the constituent’s mind, and then we can take our skill set as as grant writers, as great administrators, as grant managers and as researchers to really help you try to figure out, how do we get from point A to point B and how to get to that point of funding and implementation,” she said.

In 2024 OMEGA’s Appalachian Regional Commission funded three projects in Belmont County. It awarded $934,422 to the city of Martins Ferry for its Hospital Waterline Extension, $3,637,000 to York Township Water Authority for its Waterline Replacement Project and $2,091,444 to East Central Ohio Educational Service Center.

King-Maple added that in 2024, OMEGA was able to administer an Economic Development Administration Grant for $5 million to Belmont College for its new Construction Trades Building.

“Belmont College in this particular project as a platinum level EDA project, it’s also truly a case study in how projects of this magnitude take time, they take careful planning. It takes getting knocked down a few times and learning from our mistakes. But it’s absolutely worth it. So the EDA awarded them $5 million, and that’s pretty significant. It’s the largest grant in the college’s history, and it’s actually one of the most significant in EDA history as well. They typically award up to $2 million, but the difference here was that Belmont College in Belmont County were able to stand up a project that was able to justify and to demonstrate,” King-Maple said.

She added that the EDA’s grant was matched with $3.2 million in local and state funds.

Belmont County Commissioner Jerry Echemann thanked King-Maple and her entire staff for the work they have continued to do for the county.

“I just want to add my thanks to you and your staff. I’ve been involved for six years as a commissioner, and I’ve seen a lot of good and valuable projects which have been done and you’re appreciated very much,” Echemann said.

Commissioner Vince Gianangeli added that although he’s only been a commissioner for three months, he is very familiar with the work that OMEGA does from his more than four decades in local politics.

“Thank you for doing a wonderful job, and keep bringing money to Belmont County” he said.