Nonprofit for disabled residents receives free parking lot, sidewalk upgrades

Much needed repairs are finally being done to provide more safety and space at a local nonprofit that provides vital services to disabled residents.

Lott Industries, located on Hill Avenue in Toledo, will have a freshly paved parking lot and sidewalks on its campus as a result of two active work days conducted by the Ohio Contractors Association Toledo Chapter on Monday and Thursday.

The project, which is worth at least $250,000, is the result of the association’s annual community service project, which sees several construction companies come together to provide repairs, updates, or needed construction to neighborhoods and nonprofit organizations.

Tim Menke, executive director of Lott Industries, said its leadership had been talking about the costs of repairing the parking lot and sidewalk for about five years but decided it wouldn’t be able to be a sustainable nonprofit while paying for upgrades.

“Our front parking lot needs major repair,” Mr. Menke said. “We’re just a small nonprofit that can’t really afford something that big so [11] contractors have come together to fill the front parking lot up and then repave it for us so that it’s safe for people with disabilities.”

The contractors are also building a sidewalk to Lott’s Urban Farm greenhouse, which is behind the building, so people in wheelchairs and walkers can participate in horticulture therapy and easily access the harvesting part of its food pantry.

“They’re doing a lot of really neat improvements to the Lott property to make it better for the people we serve, all of our customers, and employees,” he said.

The league of contractors includes Kokosing Construction, All Ohio Ready Mix, Crestline Paving and Excavating, Ebony Construction Company, Geddis Paving and Excavating, the Gerken Companies, Green Earth Materials, Griffin Pavement Striping, Mosser Construction, the Shelly Company, and Vernon Nagel.

The companies started constructing the sidewalk to the greenhouse on the week of July 22, Mr. Menke said, as well as expanding the northeast parking lot on the property, which will allow more members of the community to be involved with the Urban Farm, he said.

“Eventually, the community will be a part of our Lott farm, where you can buy a lot of land or what have you and then we’ll harvest it for you and people will come and then pick up their produce,” Mr. Menke said. “That’s a plan for down the road but we needed more parking for that.”

Mr. Menke said he’s thankful for the work OCA is doing to improve the Lott Industries, which Morgan Montgomery, chapter chairman of OCA’s Toledo Chapter, said its members were happy to do.

“We like to be involved in the community,” Mr. Montgomery said. “We are in the public eye all the time for highway construction, road construction, [and] civil work construction throughout northwest Ohio. It’s a way for us to give back as far as through the contractors that are members. We do what we can to be good community members and partners in the world.”

He said the OCA does community service projects throughout the year but chooses one keynote community service project.

This year, the association decided Lott Industries would be the best recipient.

“It’s [Lott Industries] is a great cause,” Mr. Montgomery said. “Tim used to be in the construction industry with us so we know him, he knows us. We did primarily, though, because it’s a good cause. We don’t just do it for anybody.”