Photos Provided Colerain Township Fiscal Officer Vince Gianangeli, from left, Trustee John Yoker, Trustee, Jeff Gazdik, and Trustee Don Semancik erect a new welcome sign in Maynard that was made possible by the 2025 JB Green Team comprehensive grant.

BARTON — Colerain Township Trustees were the recipients of the 2025 JB Green Team comprehensive grant for $5,000.

The township purchased two welcome signs for the unincorporated communities of Barton and Maynard.

The signs contain 97% recycled post-consumer products. A 20% match from the Township made the project qualify.

Colerain Township Trustee Jeff Gazdik said that Barton and Maynard have really never had big welcome signs and he believed that neither were able to be identified when driving through.

“When people come into town like when we have the Polka Fest in Barton, we’ve never had a large sign saying ‘Welcome to Barton’ or anything like that. So we looked into getting some signs, and we found out that the JB Green Team’s grant would cover that,” Gazdik said. “We found out that the sign had to be used from recycled materials and it just so happens that this Bright Ideas Company, where we bought the signs from, is based out of Akron, 97% of their signs are made from recycled materials.”

He added that the sign is made of recycled plastic that comes from milk jugs.

“Six and a half milk jugs equals 1 pound and both signs weigh 300 pounds So you can see how many hundreds of milk jugs went into making these signs,” Gazdik said. “We wanted something that would last and wouldn’t fade in the sun and it would hold up in the weather, so we did some research and decided to go with the Bright Ideas Company for their satisfaction guarantee.”

He said that although this grant was just for Barton and Maynard, he plans to apply for it again next year for additional signage to be placed within Colerain Township.

Gazdik said the most difficult part of the process was determining when both Barton and Maynard were founded.

“They were never incorporated, so the county doesn’t have any records because they weren’t villages, towns or cities, we had a rough time,” Gazdik said.

He added that when researching he reached out to Belmont County Recorder Jason Garczyk who has independently tried to get to the bottom of when both unincorporated communities were founded.

He said that after all of the research he believes both Barton and Maynard were founded in 1879 due to a quote from Judge Jesse Barton in an article Gazdik found where Barton was quoted saying that he believed Barton and Maynard were both started around 1879.

“I would probably argue and say that it’s older, but Barton used to be known as Harris Hill and Maynard’s original name was New Pittsburgh. But that’s about the furthest I could go back, and I’m sure someone out there could probably prove me wrong and say it’s before 1879 but that was the best that we had in writing,” Gazdik said. “I did ask a lot of older residents in Barton if they had any records but never came up with anything concrete. So that’s why we went with 1879.

He added that he believes the signs will provide the residents a sense of pride as well as providing travelers a sense of direction while passing through.

“We’re trying to give these little towns some identity and when people travel through, they don’t even realize these towns because they’ve never had big signs,” Gazdik said.

He then thanked the Vicker family in Maynard and St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Barton for allowing the welcome signs to be placed on their properties.