City of Lakewood wins Ohio Capital Budget Grant–State contributes $250,000 toward Cove Church project

The Ohio General Assembly passed its FY2021-2022 biennial capital budget with $250,000 included for the renovation of the former Cove Church into the City of Lakewood’s new Human Services Center. The Capital Budget now makes its way to Governor DeWine’s desk for signature.

Mayor Meghan George said, “I am grateful for this support from the State of Ohio and especially from our legislators, Representative Michael Skindell and Senator Nickie Antonio, for all their hard work and guidance in getting us to this point.”

The Cove Church/Human Services Center project has made progress in recent weeks with environmental remediation and site preparation for major construction to begin in early 2021.

State Representative Michael Skindell said, “The Human Services Center is a wonderful project. In offering these funds to the City of Lakewood to support it, our hope is that it will come to completion sooner to serve the people of Lakewood.”

State Senator Nickie Antonio said, “I am proud to support Lakewood through state capital budget funds. This Human Services Center will be a tremendous resource for us all.”

Cove Church was purchased by the City of Lakewood in 2018 with the dual purpose of providing a location for new stormwater infrastructure to comply with the Clean Water Act but also with the hope that the existing structure could be renovated to serve the community. The project is estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million.

Mayor George added, “The City of Lakewood deserves a place to gather and our Department of Human Services staff who are working in many different and outmoded facilities will be able to innovatively collaborate in new and better ways to serve our residents.”

The State of Ohio passes a biennial capital budget to support permanent improvements to state-owned facilities. Included in the $2.1 billion budget is the “community pot” of $186 million for projects like the City of Lakewood’s Cove Church renovation into the community’s Human Services Center.