Wayne Allen | Daily Times

SODI Executive Director Steve Shepherd (left), shakes hands with OVRDC Director John Hemmings (right) after ground is broken for a new OVRDC office.

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Wayne Allen

PDT Staff Writer

WAVERLY — The Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission (OVRDC) broke ground Thursday afternoon for what will be their new office, located on State Route 220 in Waverly. It’s estimated the new office building will cost about $600,000 to construct.

John Hemmings, Director of OVRDC, said the office will be built on land donated to the organization by SODI near Zahns Corner Industrial Park. He said once completed the new building will be larger than their current office.

“We’ve been planing on this for quite a while. We are going to build a building at the Zahns Corner Industrial Park. We are moving about 2.5 miles from were we are now,” Hemmings said.

Expected to be finished in early-spring, the new office address will be 12032 SR 22 E, Waverly.

The organization recently received a $250,000 grant for the Governor’s Office of Appalachia. It was announced at the ground breaking that the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) would be taking out a $300,000 loan to provide gap financing for the building. According to Hemmings, payments will be made to SODI to payoff the building. Hemming said that once the loan is payed off the building will be owned by OVRDC.

According to its website, “OVRDC coordinates federal, state and local resources to encourage development in 12 southern Ohio counties: Adams, Brown, Clermont, Fayette, Gallia, Highland, Jackson, Lawrence, Pike, Ross, Scioto and Vinton.”

For more information about OVRDC, visit www.ovrdc.org.

Wayne Allen may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 228, or wallen@heartlandpublications.com.