'If not now, then when?': The plan to save downtown Van Wert

VAN WERT, Ohio (WANE) — Van Wert had a big problem: its downtown infrastructure was quite literally crumbling.The historic Home Guards Building downtown partially collapsed in 2020, a precursor to what might happen if many of the historic buildings weren't renovated.
Indiana businessman and politician Eric Doden had a vision: small towns buying out the building stock in downtowns, securing assets for the future and utilizing government money to repair them in the process.Perhaps the projec