Hoffee excited to see what new year brings to Millersburg
One of Historic Downtown Millersburg’s projects for 2025 will be building a new sidewalk system that will allow the village to enhance its appeal.
Coming off a monumental 2024, Millersburg Mayor Kelly Hoffee has even bigger hopes for 2025.
Historic Downtown Millersburg has experienced growth over the past several years, and it is a community-based effort.
For Hoffee, a first-year mayor, being part of the HDM fabric has been a blessing, and as 2025 begins, she said she is grateful to everyone who has played a role in making that success happen.
Looking back on 2024 and ahead to 2025, Hoffee said there is plenty of reason to be optimistic.
“This has been an exciting time for me and for Millersburg,” Hoffee said. “It took me a little while to get my feet under me, but everything is going great, and everyone is working together to make Millersburg awesome.”
For Hoffee, her first year as mayor was a whirlwind of activity. To begin with, 2024 saw HDM tabbed as recipient of Best Hometown in Ohio Magazine, an accomplishment for which Hoffee said many people proved to be a catalyst.
“I have really enjoyed working with so many different people and entities in town,” Hoffee said, “Taylor Sigler and HDM, the historical society, the Lions Club, the American Legion, the Eagles, and the list goes on and on. I love that everyone is working together with the same goal in mind of making Millersburg a success. I think we all have a good vision of what we want to be.
“For us to work toward becoming a Best Hometown and reaching that goal in our first year was very exciting.”
There were plenty of activities throughout the year that propelled the village forward, one big one being the heavy participation in Holmes County’s bicentennial celebration.
“As mayor I think I stepped right into a big year for HDM and for Holmes County,” Hoffee said.
Following up a big year in 2025 is something Hoffee said will be challenging but exciting.
She said one focal point will be the $500,000 downtown sidewalk project to beautify the village, a project that will allow it to extend the lamp posts that dot the downtown area further out from the square.
“That’s going to be a huge project for us,” Hoffee said. “We were able to accomplish that project in large part thanks to the commissioners providing us with some grant opportunities. I look forward to continuing that great relationship. They’ve been so great working with me and with the village.”
Millersburg also will undergo a bit of a face-lift in placing new signage at each entry point in the village that will match the signage at Village Hall.
“Everything will look more uniform, and it should only add to the appeal of the village,” Hoffee said.
She said the new courthouse lighting also will add ambience to HDM and will draw even more people to town as visitors.
She’ll continue to partner with HDM to promote Vintage in the Village, Garage Sale Day and the trash cleanup effort, and merging the Christmas parade.
June will see the wrap-up of celebrating the bicentennial celebration and will include an old-fashioned band playing turn-of-the-century music and a 1900 vintage base ball game with old baseball rules and uniforms.
“There’s a lot of excitement coming up,” Hoffee said. “Millersburg has become such a wonderful destination, and people are taking advantage of the opportunity to view Millersburg as a starting point to visit all of Holmes County.
“Our hope is that by continuing to promote Millersburg and bring people here, we can promote all of the incredible things Holmes County has to share as a whole. We have a great village and an amazing county that we want to share with everyone.”