2026 State of the Village Address
It is an exciting time for our Village as we leave 2025. Several big projects will be completed in 2026 as others are beginning. Let’s start with 2025 to review what has happened.
Our year started with a trio of disasters, all that had positive effects. In late January, we were notified that 6 of our 7 police officers were leaving for other positions outside of Newcomerstown. A process to find a new Chief was initiated and we interviewed 6 candidates. At the end, Craig Kennedy was selected. He came in with a plan, hired Bruce Lowery immediately as Deputy Chief and both have done a great job rebuilding our police force with good people. We would like to thank and commend Sheriff Orvis Campbell and the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Department.
In February, our main water line on Canal Street broke! Our Water Superintendent, Jared McFarland, water department with assistance from Vic Allen Construction of Coshocton, spent twenty hours on the site to fix and seal the line. After several days of a boil alert, our water was declared safe after testing. It was a good thing it was fixed because on March 11th, a fire broke out in the former Ritz Theater at about 2pm. It spread fast through the residence and upstairs apartments. Eleven different fire departments came to our community, including Coshocton, New Philadelphia, and Uhrichsville, who brought ladder trucks. The ladder trucks made the difference in getting the fire under control and out by midnight.
We are grateful to every fire department because without them, we may have lost so much more than that one building. I was so proud of our community. When a call went for food and refreshments, our businesses, restaurants and citizens came through with tables of food and refreshments. Three fire chiefs told me they have never been treated as well as Newcomerstown treated them.
So that’s how we started, with problems whose solutions have made us stronger. Our village departments set 266 goals this year. They completed 235 of them by the end of the year, making it an 88% completion rate. This is our best year of the last ten for goal completion. Any citizen may request a list.
In 2025, a new splash pad was constructed at Cy Young Pool, paid for with grants from the Thomas R Little Foundation, the Reeves Foundation, and from donations from many businesses and citizens as well as the Elks, the Rotary Club, Dover-Phila Credit Union, the Legion, and the VFW.
The Main Street Downtown Project started with the power washing, tuck pointing and painting of many downtown buildings. Painting will be completed this Spring. The project was paid for with a $670,000 Appalachian Community Grant.
Columbia Gas will begin lifting sidewalks for new gas lines; one of which will be on Main Street from Goodrich to the alley between the Cameo and Secondhand Hannah. The sidewalks will be replaced on both sides as well as the water laterals to each building as needed. Twelve new lamp posts will be added, six to each side of Main Street as well as Canal Street, replacing telephone poles with lights. The Main Street sidewalks are paid for with an $851,000 TAP grant from ODOT. The north side of Canal Street will also have sidewalks replaced with the addition of lamp posts as part of the Appalachian Community Grant. We ask businesses and the public to be patient as this construction is completed.
2025 saw two new businesses start in the Industrial Park, Chipico Pickles and Altor Solutions. These openings added 80 new jobs. The Newcomerstown Community Improvement Corporation has been working to secure more companies into the Industrial Park to bring more jobs to our village.
Connected to bringing new jobs to our community is the need for new housing. We have lost companies interested in building inside of the Industrial Park due to not having available housing. The administration has been working on the Simonds Industry Land for the past 5 years in preparation for possible new developments. We have put out an RFP, Request for Proposal, to 10 different developers for their ideas for housing on these 15 acres. We are excited to see the possibilities for a senior citizen development, apartments, single family housing and condos and townhouses. The deadline for proposals is January 16th. Each proposal will be examined by our Strategic Planning Commission. Selected proposals will be asked to showcase a presentation for the commission and Council. 2026 will be a year of planning, we have applied for a $500,000 Ohio Brownfield Grant to be used to help prepare the ground for construction.
The Newcomerstown NOW organization continues to decorate our community with flowers, banners, and activities for the community. New welcome signs to our Village have been designed and constructed by John Resh’s Street Department and Fiscal Officer, Lisa Spillman. Lisa is also responsible for the military banners on State Street through the Newcomerstown NOW organization. The Newcomerstown Historical Society has been actively renovating the Temperance Tavern Museum with assistance from grants, donations and hard work from their volunteers.
I would like to thank the many citizens who have stepped up this past year. We have seen more participation with citizens attending public meetings concerning our Police Department, e-bikes and problematic cat colonies. Each person brought more ideas and concerns to our attention as well as possible solutions.
We would also like to thank every citizen who helped make our town look physically better. More compliments are coming from visitors who see how well most of our homes and properties are cared for. The look of our community helps change the opinions of those who have seen a different town in the past. The removal of abandoned properties continues to be a priority. Dave Archer, our Zoning Officer, has worked on collecting information on dilapidated properties for demolition as well as other abandoned properties for Sheriff’s Auctions due to foreclosure from unpaid back taxes.
We have had 3 Council members step down this year. Susan Little, Jan McCune and Michael Wise. We thank them for their dedication and guidance for the past four years and wish them well in their future. Don’t think you’re off the hook though, you will still be needed to help keep our community growing!
On the other side of the coin, we welcome 3 new council members- Josh Leeser, Lonnie Tarrance and Steve Carney. We are excited to have your guidance with everything new coming to the Village. Our notice for new council members brought 8 applications and each applicant was a good candidate for these positions. We thank them for their willingness to participate in our local government and for the betterment of our community.
