The City of Crawfordsville has been named a recipient in the 2015 Stellar Communities program, receiving up to a $1.5 million grant. The announcement came today during ceremonies at the Indiana State Fair.
The Stellar Communities program is a multi-agency partnership designed to fund comprehensive community development projects in Indiana’s smaller communities. The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs and Indiana Department of Transportation are participating in the program.
New this year was the creation of two divisions based on public feedback received from smaller communities who believed they were at a competitive disadvantage. As a result, it was determined that creating two divisions based on population was the best way to provide opportunities to communities of all size to compete for the designation. Division 1 is for communities with populations over 6,000 and Division 2 is for populations below 5,999.
Joining Crawfordsville in Division 1 was Decatur and Marion. North Liberty beat out Dunkirk in Division 2.
Thirteen communities submitted letters of interest for the 2015 Stellar Communities program. The grants range from $500,000 to $1.5 million.
Crawfordsville’s proposal was originally created by local authorities and submitted in early March. The proposal builds on recent successes within the community and is focused on creating a community in which people want to live and work.
“Our efforts to transform Crawfordsville are focused squarely on one overarching belief,” Barton said in an earlier published story. “We must create a community in which people want to live and work. While the term quality of life is thrown around a lot today it isn’t merely a catch phrase for us. We operate with an unwavering passion to steadily improve our quality of life because we know our very survival is dependent upon it.”
The city’s application contains the following initiatives:
• Improving a sense of place through community gathering points.
• Promoting well being through trails, parks and bike/pedestrian friendly streets.
• Promoting economic growth to spur investment in improved retail, dining and entertainment offerings.
• Engaging residents to improve their sense of worth by utilizing their human capital.
• Harnessing the tremendous power of our high sense of volunteerism.
• Increasing community pride through aggressive blight elimination.
• Capitalizing on a strongly emerging tourism industry.