Success Stories

West Portsmouth, Ohio, sitting serenely near the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio Rivers in Appalachia, now has an upgraded wastewater treatment plant. According to J.P. Pickelsimer, Scioto County Sanitary Engineer, West Portsmouth’s treatment facility – built in the early… [Read More]

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, Bill Garmier returned to Ohio with nothing but starting a family farm on his mind. For years, his family would plant and harvest corn and soybeans, but when the market began to change Garmier knew he needed to find an additional source of… [Read More]

What begin in Alexander Annin’s sail-making shop in 1820s New York City is today known as America’s oldest and largest flag company. It’s still family-owned and fiercely committed to using only USA labor and materials.  While Annin Flagmakers’ headquarters can be found… [Read More]

Erik Chaffer considers himself an optimist. Still, he found himself feeling pretty low as he watched the Great Recession knock the legs out from under the rural Ohio ethanol plant he helped manage. “Everything was pretty good until July 2008. It was just a ‘perfect storm’ type… [Read More]

  In commemoration of USDA’s annual Homeownership Month, some industrious Ohio Rural Development team members spent a sunny day at a Habitat for Humanity building site, helping Marysville resident Michelle Amrine and her two children frame out a place to call their own.… [Read More]

   With nearly 96 percent of the current systems in failure, Erie County Commissioners are using a $5.95 million USDA Rural Development wastewater loan and grant combination to replace on-site waste treatment systems that have been improperly discharging into and… [Read More]