In early 2009, staff began working on a partnership with Ft. McKinley United Methodist Church on the corner of Siebenthaler and Salem Avenues in Harrison Township.  Ft. McKinley U.M., a campus of Ginghamsburg United Methodist in Tipp City, had recently made a commitment to the Ft. McKinley community to help transform the neighborhood to be “the best neighborhood in Montgomery County.”  Through many meetings and various endeavors, Harrison Township and Ft. McKinley began working on many different projects together in the hopes of redeveloping the Ft. McKinley community in a steady, more focused direction than previous efforts had allowed for. 

One of the biggest projects township and Ft. McKinley staff worked on together was coming up with a reuse for the old Michigan Avenue Fire Station.  The church and the township realized the fire station had untapped potential as a neighborhood resource.  The church began using the fire station as their headquarters for their “Urban Plunge” program in June of 2009.  The Urban Plunge program is a week long camp which sees suburban children and teens come into the urban community and perform community clean ups county wide.  Part of this program in 2009 saw the Urban Plunge campers dedicate one whole day a week to community cleanup efforts in the Ft. McKinley neighborhood.  This program ran from June through the end of July and saw approximately 8 separate camp sessions be headquartered from the Michigan Fire Station.  Ft. McKinley and Harrison Township also partnered together to do twice monthly neighborhood cleanups in the Ft. McKinley neighborhood from June through September.  These cleanups consisted of the church congregation going into the neighborhood on two weekends a month to perform any and all cleanup assistance they could provide for the residents of the community.  Through the Montgomery County Combined Waste District’s voucher program, the township subsequently picked up the trash and debris the following Monday and disposed of the material for Ft. McKinley.  This program was continued in 2010 and 2011 with the church doing monthly clean ups from April through November and the township once again providing disposal services.  In 2011, Ft. McKinley took on a remodeling project at the Fire Station.  New paint and new carpet (all donated by a local hardware store) will be applied during the spring and summer months bringing a new, fresh feel to the new community gathering place.

In late 2009, Ft. McKinley completed a 5 year master plan for potential future uses for the Michigan Fire Station – with the ultimate goal of using the Fire Station for a neighborhood community center that would serve as a destination place for township residents.  Moving towards that goal, the township trustees and Ft. McKinley U.M agreed to a one year extension for the use of the Michigan Fire Station that ran through the end of 2010 and was renewed again in November 2010 to extend through the end of 2011. 

In addition to the above mentioned projects, Ft. McKinley U.M. organized a 5K run through the neighborhood to bring the community together as well as bring awareness to the redevelopment efforts currently being undertaken in the neighborhood.  They also organized a neighborhood block party for the entire community and held the event at the Michigan Fire Station in both 2009 and 2010.  At both of these events, the township was well represented through various township officials mingling with the community.  In early March, 2011 the Board of Trustees signed an additional agreement with Ft. McKinley U.M. for Ft. McKinley and the residents in the surrounding neighborhood to begin using property owned by the township as a community garden.  The township trustees are excited to follow the progress of the garden throughout 2011.

The exciting by-product of this partnership is Ft. McKinley U.M. being a partner in County Corp & Oberer Development’s plans for a redevelopment project which would bring 25 new homes to the Ft. McKinley neighborhood.  This new partnership applied to the state of Ohio in April of 2011 for a $2 million grant from the state's NSP III Grant Pool.  In the middle of May, 2011, township staff received word the application was awarded the $2 million for the project.  Township staff will be working closely with the partnership in the coming months as we begin to move the redevelopment project to fruition.  Staff expects by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012, new home construction will begin in Ft. McKinley.

Also in May, 2011, township trustee Ronald Casey and township staff joined the Ft. McKinley UM family in a "Walk for Peace."  This Peace Walk brought almost 150 community members out in the rain to encourage the youth in the community to choose peace rather than violence.  Ft. McKinley is planning  another walk later in 2011.