Killbuck gets $339,000 to fix flood-prone North Main Street

Killbuck is getting $339,000 to raise, rebuild and repave a flood-prone stretch of North Main Street that serves as one of the village’s key corridors. The project is aimed at a practical fix: make the road harder to wash out, keep traffic moving when rain falls hard and reduce the kind of access problems that have long followed high water in the village.

The Ohio Department of Development said the money will support the North Main Business Corridor project in Holmes County. The work covers about 2,500 linear feet of North Main Street, beginning at South Water Street and continuing northeast. Plans call for elevation, reconstruction and repaving, a combination meant to change how the roadway handles water instead of simply patching it after repeated flooding.

State officials folded the Killbuck project into a larger June 8 package that topped $11.7 million in community and business support. More than $9 million of that total went to community infrastructure through the Roadwork Development Grant Program. Ohio’s Controlling Board approved the $339,000 release on June 8, clearing the way for the village to move ahead with the corridor work.

For Killbuck, the payoff runs beyond fresh pavement. North Main Street is a main route for residents, customers, deliveries and emergency traffic, and repeated flooding can interrupt all of them at once. When water collects on the roadway, nearby properties face more risk, businesses can lose access and travel through the village becomes less reliable. The planned elevation and reconstruction are designed to make that stretch more dependable in heavy rain, especially where the street has been most vulnerable.

The village has also said on its website that it intends to pursue additional infrastructure funding, including an application for a Community Development Block Grant residential public infrastructure grant. That effort fits a broader local push to address basic road and drainage needs in a village where flooding has remained part of the planning picture for years.

A 2013 U.S. Geological Survey flood-inundation study for Killbuck Creek near the village documented flood profiles and mapping used in a FEMA flood-insurance study update. More recent storms have underscored the same problem. In April 2026, severe weather brought high water to parts of Holmes County near Millersburg, and another 2026 flood report said Killbuck Creek reached flood stage and sent water across low-lying roads in and around Killbuck. Historical flood records also note that Killbuck Creek rose 20 feet during the 1969 flood, the highest level cited in that account.