Photo by Joselyn King Businessman Donn Sinclair of Charleston, South Carolina, updates Belmont County commissioners on his plans to purchase properties in Bellaire and build residential homes.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Bellaire native Donn Sinclair now lives and works in North Carolina, and he has started a project to welcome people into new homes in Ohio.

Sinclair works in real estate and financial planning in Rock Hill, North Carolina. On Wednesday, he spoke of his plan to revitalize the Rose Hill neighborhood in Bellaire and perhaps do the same in Barnesville.

Sinclair explained he saw an ad while at home in the Carolinas promoting the “Welcome Home Ohio” program. The program provides grants for the purchase of qualifying residential properties in the state and the additional cost of rehabilitating an existing home or building a new one.

It gave him an idea to return home to Belmont County and help out.

Sinclair grew up in Bellaire, while wife Kristin grew up in Barnesville. The pair say it’s time to “give back” to their communities.

“We live in the Charleston, South Carolina market, and we saw commercials (for Welcome Home Ohio) that reminded us we needed to get back to Barnesville and Bellaire,” he explained.

The Sinclair Foundation over the past year has now sponsored $300,000 in projects in those communities, according to Sinclair. Their donations have gone to food pantries, churches and schools.

“We are thankful for what we learned in Belmont County,” Sinclair said. “Help us so we can help you.”

The Sinclairs are starting out in the Rose Hill area and have already acquired 14 parcels of land there.

Kristin Sinclair wasn’t present as she was at the county treasurer’s sale “buying more parcels,” he noted.

There are still about 40 parcels they want to buy, Sinclair continued. If all the parcels are acquired, they would like to build 36 new homes on Rose Hill.

The Sinclairs have torn down dilapidated structures in the neighborhood at a cost of about $8,000 each, he said.

Plans are to build new residential homes with a $250,000 price tag.

“We believe if you go in and clean up a neighborhood, it will spread through the village of Bellaire,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair asked commissioners with help in dismissing any deliquent taxes on the properties purchased at a sheriff’s sale. He explained the Welcome Home Ohio program will only provide funding on properties obtained in this way.

In addition, Sinclair asked commissioners for assistance in paving Belmont County Road 214, which runs through the Rose Hill neighborhood.

“It needs paved and we will help,” he said. “If you can figure what the county can do, what the state can do and what the village can come up with, we will help them come up with their part of the money. But it just absolutely needs to be done.”

Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer, who previously served as administrator for the village of Bellaire, is familiar with the project and said it is a good candidate for the Welcome Home Ohio funding.

Sinclair noted he had been getting “great help” from Belmont County officials so far. He asked commissioners if they could help him to find additional grants and funding to keep costs down as the Sinclair Foundation is non-profit.

“We will be selling these new homes at a loss,” he said. “Any help we could get from the Welcome Home Ohio Campaign will make (the project successful).”

Also during Wednesday’s meeting, commissioners approved a plan to borrow – through bonds – up to $10 million to complete the construction of the new health department building on the site of the former County Home.

“Up until now, we’ve been able to pay the bills on our own, but we always knew that couldn’t continue,” Commission President Jerry Echemann explained. “We put off borrowing as long as we could.

“It has just got to the point we’re just going to have to borrow money to complete the project.”

He reports the project is “going well.”

Ohio Rep. Ty Moore, R-Caldwell – himself a former Noble County commissioner – appeared before the board to offer his assistance in whatever matters they might need help at the state level.

Representatives from the Tri-County Help Center also were present to receive a proclamation from the commission proclaiming the month of January as “Human Trafficking Awareness Month.”

The color for the month is blue, and the public awareness campaign is designed to engage advocates, partners and the public in a national conversation about human trafficking, explained JaQue Galloway of the Tri-County Help Center. Similar proclamations were passed earlier in the week in Monroe and Harrison counties.