Marion Mayor Ronald Morrell presents six projects for quality of life improvements

Morrell said the city did an economic development impact study for other cities that invested in youth sports. The city of Kokomo added an investment of newer baseball diamonds for youth sports.

Morrell said Kokomo had over a $20 million a year in economic impact due to the increase in sports tournaments at the park.

Instead of baseball, Morrell thought it would be a better idea to have a soccer focus since there are not enough fields for both sports.

“This area is still a flood zone by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). To resurrect anything, whether it’s fencing or dugouts, it presents us huge problems: one, a cost standpoint; and two, from an approval standpoint,” he said. “So, that’s why we geared strictly towards soccer.”

This new update would allow 10 soccer fields to be developed as well as 300 new parking spaces for visitors. A new local business called Smash and Dash will also be rehabbing the old go-kart track across the street. Smash and Dash will double as a restaurant and a bowling alley, as well as hosting other things.

This development will be going to the Marion common council during their Nov. 4 meeting with the goal to be passed at the end of the same month. Morrell said if it were to be approved, the construction will be completed around spring of 2027.

Morrell also put a request out to FEMA to reevaluate the areas to determine if it is still considered a flood zone or not.

Mississinewa pedestrian bridge/concert venue

After staying in and viewing other cities with areas that host festivals or concerts, Morrell is proposing to have a pedestrian bridge between the Branson Street bridge and the Washington Street bridge that can host a food truck event. The pedestrian bridge would also have a bump-out for a stage/concert venue to host roughly 500 people.

“So, the hope of this is to attract people to downtown Marion for food festivals, arts and to build one of the most unique things in the state,” he said. “This severely enhances our Christmas parade, our Walkway of Lights and bringing more things into downtown.”

During the discussion, Morrell said the city acquired more land near the area to allow more parking for visitors.

“The first time I thought about this, I said, ‘Ronnie, you are crazy.’ But, a lot of what this is – I’m asking you, the city council and everyone to be able to see what we can be and not who we are at the moment,” Morrell said. “So these designs and visions and what we’re presenting is not for what’s right now. This is for the money that’s being invested for what the city of Marion can be in the next two-to-10 years.”

Marion Skatepark

This proposal originally came from Marion Councilman Nick McKinley. The new Marion Skatepark is currently being designed by Hunger Skateparks and will go into the old, existing skate structure at Hogin Park.

“People travel specifically out of their way to just attend these skateparks (designed by Hunger). But the reason why the expenses is high, because it will all be permanent in-ground concrete,” Morrell said.

With the new structure, Morrell said the concrete has a lifespan of 20 years and is coated with a graffiti-proof layer.

There is a similar structure in Muncie, and Morrell said as soon as it opened, it became a tourist attraction for the city. There is also a Marion Skatepark Facebook page called The Marion Skatepark Project where people can follow along for updates.

Southside Park

The city has owned some land on 33rd St. and Nebraska Street for a while and recently purchased a property next to it.

Morrell said he became inspired to have some sort of food truck park after watching a series on one. With that, he decided the land that the city owns on the southside would make a good spot for it.

At this park, there would be tables for people to eat at, playground equipment, a small area for people to perform at and hookups for 10 food trucks to set up shop.

“This area gives us a chance to activate a park on the southside of town. Now, one thing people don’t realize, there’s actually no park from the southside of town,” Morrell said. “So basically, from 28th Street to 50 Street, there’s no park. We used to have some different areas, but over the course of time, they’ve all closed.”

Additionally, within this proposal, the city would be able to make money on renting space to food truck owner.

“We just had a food truck festival, there were about 40 food trucks. So, we have a lot in this area that we would hope to cycle in,” Morrell said.

BW Downtown Development

Last year, the city and county launched a housing study. According to Morrell, the study’s results said Marion was short 2,000 housing units.

“This is a mixture of everything, from affordable, government-assisted housing all the way up to luxury housing,” he said. “That’s why you see myself and this administration be really aggressive towards building new places for people to live.”

Currently at the old Jones Heritage school, there has been a project to develop that into workforce housing, which is almost completed. The new River Rocks apartment building that is being constructed is being made for middle income housing.

For this new project, Morrell said the city has acquired property to develop into a riverfront retail space. On top of the retail space, there would be a few floors of 56 rental apartments.

“The tip behind this project is to fill the gap that we have in our housing, because obviously, the ultimate goal that we want to do is increase the population and grow the city,” Morrell said.

Marion Airport utility Upgrades

Due to the increase in events at the Marion Airport, Morrell is wanting to add in water and utilities to their location.

“The airport is great for economic development and economic impact to the city, and we want to be able to position it to be able to host more people and to deal with more hangars,” he said.

One of Morrell’s reasonings behind upgrading the facilities is to allow more people to have or use hangars. He said there have been companies that have reached out to him that want to store their planes at the airport but can’t due to the current facilities and lack of utilities.

Morrell said the city has the capacity to use 12 million gallons of water a day but only use roughly 4 million gallons, so the city has the capacity to supply water out to the airport.

Other meetings or discussion opportunities

Marion will be hosting another round of their traveling town halls where the public can meet department heads and ask questions.

The first one was on Oct. 9 at St. James Lutheran Church. The second traveling town hall will be at 6 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the REAL Community Covenant Church and the last one will be at 6 p.m. on Dec. 11 at the Greater 2nd Baptist Church.