Port authority to receive $700,099 state grant for River Wall lighting

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority will be the official recipient of a $700,099 state grant to help cover the cost of illuminating the Glass City River Wall mural on a grain elevator near downtown Toledo.

The agency’s board of directors approved Thursday an agreement with the Ohio Department of Development to receive the state grant. After deducting a $10,000 administrative fee, the port will then turn the money over to the Bon Secours Mercy Health Foundation, which is coordinating the lighting project’s financing.

Installing a solar field and the lights it will power to illuminate the mural at night is expected to cost about $1.5 million overall. The port authority previously contributed $50,000 to that project, and Toledo City Council last fall appropriated $500,000 specifically for the 207-kilowatt solar array that will power both the lights and the city water utility’s Oakdale Pumping Station nearby. More than $250,000 in other funding, including $150,000 from Lucas County, also has been provided.

The port’s $50,000 was drawn from the roughly $350,000 it receives annually from a 0.4-mill levy it collects on real estate in Lucas County. Also during its meeting Thursday, the port directors approved placing a five-year renewal of that levy on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

If approved by voters, the tax would continue to be collected in 2025 through 2029. it would continue to cost property owners $8 per $100,000 of assessed land and building value each year.

The board also approved $20,000 grants Thursday to Toledo Muslim Doctors’ Initiative, doing business as the Halim Clinic, and to the Metroparks Toledo Foundation.

The Halim Clinic grant will assist with costs to renovate a building it recently acquired at 4271 Monroe St. to expand its charitable medical and dental health services. The Metroparks grant will help pay for inspecting 3,000 feet of Maumee River seawall along International Park to determine if the dock face there is in suitable condition for large vessels, such as cruise ships, to dock there.