ZANESVILLE, Ohio — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is celebrating National Resilience Month in Ohio.

What You Need To Know

  • The Federal Emergency Management Agency declared August National Resilience Month and 2024 the Year of Resilience

  • Nearly $5.46 million from FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is covering 90 percent of the cost of rebuilding and strengthening Muskingum Ave. in Zanesville

  • FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell joined state and local officials to tour the construction site

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell joined state and local officials at a construction site along Muskingum Ave. in Zanesville Wednesday.

“The work that they’re going to do on this road is going to connect communities,” she said. “It’s going to prevent the types of damage that was being done to cut off access to this road in the future.”

The road has been closed to all traffic since 2019, after weather caused rock falls and slippage, making it unsafe and in need of major repairs. The road sits at the base of a large hill and runs along the Muskingum River.

“The reaction I get from people is that they thought it was such a big project, it would never be done,” Zanesville Mayor Don Mason said. “And now they're so excited to see that government at all levels is cooperating to work together. Federal, state and local are working together.”

FEMA awarded a nearly $5.46 million dollar grant to the city last year to help facilitate the project. The grant covers 90% of the total cost for the repairs, with the city covering the remaining 10%. The funds come from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which Criswell said is separate from disaster relief funding.

“Every dollar that we invest in mitigation actually saves us $6 in response down the road,” she said. “And so we purposely set money aside for this, always ensuring that we have enough funding to support the life saving, life responding activities.”

The funds will help stabilize the hillside and riverside to pave the way toward reconnecting the city.

“It being closed caused a real issue in getting timely reaction to fires, police activity or the need of ambulance,” Mason said.

Now the city’s engineer is using the materials excavated at the road repair site to build out Putnam Hill Park, which sits atop the hill overlooking the road, nearly doubling the size of the park to about nine acres.

“Everything that's that's up here now was on that bank washing down on the the road every basically every winter, every freeze and thaw,” said Zanesville City Engineer Chip Saunders.

The project is expected to be complete in 2025.