Somerset, Ohio Welcomes You!

Waste Management

Waste Management trash pick-up will be held during regular times for the following holiday weeks:

Grant Paves the Way to New Sidewalks

Last spring the Village of Somerset applied to the Perry County Commissioners for Community Development Block Grant Funds (CDBG) to begin the process of improving the village’s sidewalks and was awarded $40,300 for Phase I. This project will install brick-paved sidewalks on a portion of the streets within the Village of Somerset’s Historic District at no cost to the village.   

This funding amount covers Phase I, which begins at the western edge of the district on Pigsfoot Square and proceeds toward the Public Sq. as far as the properties adjacent to Pigsfoot. This sidewalk replacement project has begun with Hocking Athens Perry Community Action currently reviewing the bids received for the design phase of the project.  

Other towns such as Lancaster and Zanesville have received grant funds to install new sidewalks in their downtown areas.  They are designed to have a historical look by utilizing brick pavers, but they are much more easily maintained as they are laid atop a concrete & asphalt bed.  As part of the design process, input from neighbors and villagers will be solicited.  Bob Loversidge, an architect from Schooley Caldwell & Associates will be overseeing the process.  In addition to having worked with the village for over 30 years on our Somerset Courthouse restoration projects, he also was the lead architect on the Ohio Statehouse restoration and many other important preservation projects. 

Somerset was eligible for CDBG funding based on the fact that 51% of residents’ income levels fall into the low and moderate level.  Unemployment in Perry County as of December, 2009 stands at 14.3%.  Within the context of Ohio, only 11 counties out of the state’s total of 88 had a higher unemployment rate.  Most states don’t have any counties with a rate as high.  Governor Strickland’s Office of Appalachia has designated Perry County an “at risk” county economically due to the recession and the impact it is having on individuals and families here.  Our economic situation makes the Village of Somerset and the county eligible for various economic revitalization programs.

We are currently submitting economic revitalization grant requests in order to upgrade the sidewalks and install antique looking streetlights throughout the entire Somerset Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.  It contains nearly 50 acres, 67 buildings and 1 object (Sheridan Statue).  The district extends from the corner of High Street and East Main west to the Lutheran church on West Main St. and from North Columbus St. and Gay St. south to the intersection of South Columbus St. and Sheridan Ave.  The majority of the district lies along what is U.S. Route 22 today, and was originally the Zane Trace, the nation’s first federally funded road. The trace served as the main thoroughfare from 1798 until approximately 1820 for pioneers from the original colonies streaming into the newly opened Ohio territory.

The Public Square is graced by the 1829 courthouse.  It is one of only two surviving original Ohio county first generation courthouses and the oldest continuously used government building in the American Midwest.  An excerpt from the 1975 National Register nomination form states:  “Architecturally Somerset ranks as one of Ohio’s most “intact early county seats retaining not only its 1828 courthouse and early jail, but also nearly all its 19^th century commercial structures and houses.”

The Historical Society of Perry County is also working to restore the Jacob Miller Tavern building which sits on the square.  An Ohio Historical Society marker noting the two-story hand-hewn tavern built in 1807 by Jacob Miller, a German speaking immigrant and the village’s co-founder will be placed on the site on Saturday, April 17^th as part of the Perry County Art Walk, which the Society is hosting in Somerset to raise restoration funds. 

The renovated Tavern building and Historic District facelift will enhance Somerset’s position as having incomparable assets in its architectural heritage and a functional downtown walking core of commercial and residential buildings.

Somerset's "Emerald Necklace"

OVERVIEW -The Village of Somerset has been selected by the State of Ohio’s Natural Resources Assistance Council (NRAC) to receive a grant for $230,000 from the Clean Ohio Conservation Fund to acquire 35 acres within Somerset’s village limits for a green space nature park that will give current and future residents of Somerset an “emerald necklace,” or ring of green open spaces around our village.

The competitive Clean Ohio Conservation Fund program seeks to provide a green legacy to Ohioans, improving the quality of life for residents and visitors through creating public accessible parklands. All the while, these parklands also raise property values, absorb storm-water, clean the air, provide valuable wildlife habitat, and bridge a connection to nature in the communities.

This project adds two parcels of land to the village’s park system to provide for a public wilderness with nature and a hiking trail approximately 1.5 miles long. The first parcel is behind the Somerset Elementary School. It is 28 acres and continues from behind the school playground to the bottom of the hill where the old Somerset B&O depot used to be. The wooded parcel contains stream beds and a wetland area that provides a wonderful habitat for native plant & animal species. Principal Larry Saunders is excited about using it as a “Wild School” outdoor classroom environment where nature and conservation subjects could be taught in an exciting way.

Skunk cabbage buds are just now starting to sprout through the snow in the wetlands on the 28 acre tract

The second parcel of approximately 7 acres is adjacent to the Somerset Memorial Park and directly across from the Somerset Post Office. This piece contains a nice wooded area, a wood-side stream as well as a meadow. Both of these new parcels will become part of the village’s park system which is overseen by the Village Park Board. Board President John Bope is enthusiastic about the park expansion.

We’ve started the trail planning process and are working with the Andrew Bashaw, Head of the Ohio Buckeye Trail group and Eric Oberg from the Rails to Trails Conservancy to solicit advice on creating nature and hiking trails. We plan to develop trail themes around the fact that two famous trails passed through our town, the Moxahala Indian trail and the Zane Trace.

District 18 NRAC Chairwoman Ann Bonner, discussing trail layout with Eric Oberg and Andrew Bashaw

Ohio Department of Natural Resources invasive species specialist, Anne Marie Smith identifying a grape vine that is harming a mature walnut tree and needs to be removed