They represent baby steps in transforming poop into power, trash into biogas -- but also a strategic investment in small-scale renewable energy projects that can save communities money.

Thanks to $10 million in federal stimulus grants, 11 projects from Ashtabula County to Zanesville and Cleveland will use aptly named digester facilities to compost into methane gas what is politely known as biodegradable material -- manure, sewage, mom's liver and onions.

The gas will power engines that generate electricity and heat. Even better, the projects will put everyday trash to beneficial use, helping kick-start a new energy sector.

The state anticipates the projects will create 39 full-time and 28 part-time jobs. Those numbers will grow if hospitals, colleges, entertainment and sporting venues, restaurants and other businesses choose to recycle their organic waste rather than ship it to landfills.

Victory in the ongoing war to make Ohio more eco-friendly, though, is also contingent on buy-in from the community, and adequate reassurances that any digesters -- airtight tanks that use anaerobic bacteria to consume organic waste and produce biogas -- will be safe.

That's the challenge for Forest City Land Development LLC -- which got one of the $1 million grants to partner with quasar energy group to build a $3.7 million digester facility next to the 20-acre-plus Cleveland Job Corps Academy campus in Collinwood.

The site, for a digester that will convert liquid waste, such as expired milk, into electricity to be sold to Cleveland Public Power, is across the Shoreway from Bratenahl, next to a training center and near residential streets.

Forest City officials say the project could attract needed jobs to what is now a semi-industrial area, and that it remains subject to review by the City Planning Commission. They also say they have gotten support from community leaders and will hold public meetings to explain the project and answer questions from neighbors.

They need to listen to what those neighbors have to say.

Mel Kurtz, who heads up quasar, said the facility will not make "offensive noise" and should operate odor-free, unlike some of the region's sewage and trash disposal sites.

That's good news -- but officials still must reassure those living and working nearby