Briefs: Seven Marion County organizations receive arts council grants

Marion Star
·2 min read

Marion County organizations awarded Ohio Arts Council grants

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Arts Council (OAC) board Wednesday approved $18,246,306 in grants to support Ohio artists, arts and cultural organizations, students, educators, and public arts programming. Ten of the grants are designated for Marion County. They are:

  • Caledonia Farmers Market — $2,958 ArtSTART grant

  • Marion Voices Folklife & Oral History — $15,905 ArtsNEXT grant and $3,361 ArtSTART grant

  • River Valley Middle School/River Valley Local Schools — $13,500 TeachArtsOhio grant

  • Terradise Nature Center — $12,945 ArtsNEXT grant and $3,559 ArtSTART grant

  • George Washington Elementary School/Marion City Schools — $12,000 TeachArtsOhio grant

  • Marion St. Mary School — $27,000 TeachArtsOhio grant

  • Palace Cultural Arts Association — $2,858 Ohio Artists on Tour grant and $29,817 sustainability grant

The 764 grants approved at this week's meeting constitute the initial and major state fiscal year 2023 funding round for the OAC.

LaRue Christian Preschool benefits from Lowe's Heroes program

LARUE — LaRue Christian Preschool is ready for the new school year. Employees at the Marion Lowe’s store selected the preschool as the recipient of A Lowe’s Hero Project.

Volunteers from Lowe’s and The Scioto Valley Fire department generously donated time and energy to install some new playground equipment, clean, upgrade and repair the playground fence and add mulch to the existing playground. They also added video camera to keep the area safe and protected.

The preschool is housed in the LaRue United Methodist Church at 166 N. High St. The program serves children ages 3 through 5.

Law enforcement officers from six states join forces to combat speeding

COLUMBUS — Law enforcement officers across Ohio are joining officers from five other Great Lakes states including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin on Wednesday for this year’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Region 5 high visibility Speed Awareness Day enforcement campaign.

During the campaign, law enforcement officers will combine increased, zero-tolerance enforcement with effective communication to road users on the importance of obeying the speed limit.

Speed is involved in about one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities nationwide. NHTSA statistical projections for 2021 show traffic deaths grew by 10.5% to 42,915. According to crash statistics from Ohio in 2021: 11% of all crashes were speed-related; 360 people died on Ohio's roadways in speed-related crashes; 1,549 people were seriously injured; and 32% of Ohio's speed-related crashes occurred between June and September.

In 2021, there were 5,413 fatal injuries in the six-state region with 1,668 (30.8%) being speed-related fatalities. This was an increase of 17.7% from 2020. Ohio ranks second in the six-state region with 1,351 total fatalities, an increase of 9.8% from the previous year.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Briefs: Marion County to get 10 Ohio Arts Council grants