You should have a balun at the feedpoint of the antenna to ensure both wings of the antenna are balanced, and see the correct load impedance. A folded dipole of the correct dimension is around 200-300 ohms balanced. A common tactic on VHF and UHF frequencies is to short one end of the element to the midpoint, and take the coaxial feed to the remaining feedpoint and the midpoint of the antenna. At this point, the impedance should be between 50-75 ohms, but the antenna may suffer some imbalance.
As for grounding, you DO NOT want strike current passing though your equipment. The only correct way to do this is to bring your coax line to a ground block that is directly tied to station ground, hopefully directly to the ground rod. This way, all high current will go directly to ground and avoid passing through your equipment, causing further damage. In radio and TV I've seen a lot of damage over the years caused by poor grounding practices.
+-RH