Stellar Communities grant tour set for Wabash

In the revitalization strategy communities will identify areas of interest and types of projects, produce a schedule to complete projects, produce cost estimates, identify local match amounts, sources, and additional funding resources, indicate the level of community impact, and describe the significance each project will have on the overall comprehensive revitalization of the community. From this revitalization strategy, communities will produce a three-year community investment plan which will identify capital and quality of life projects to be completed during that period.

“We’re getting there,” Vanlandingham said of the planning process. “We had a big meeting on Monday with everyone on the committee, and discussed all the aspects of (the city’s plans). It went very well.”

The committee went through project by project listed in the plan.

“We were tweaking some,” the mayor said. “Maybe eliminating some, somewhat, and planned for further investigation on others.”

One of the major changes was the inclusion of a refurbishing of the Eagles Theatre to the project. That comes, Vanlandingham said, at the expense of creating an amphitheater at Paradise Spring Historical Park, which had been in last year’s Stellar Community Grant plan.

Also to be added is a park for children with special needs.

“We would refurbish the upstairs,” he said of the theater project, “make it a big ballroom for outreach programs, educational programs, things like that.

“We may end up putting an amphitheater in Paradise Spring, but it just won’t be the magnitude the other one would have been.”

Having two railroad tracks near the proposed amphitheater site is a detriment to that project, the mayor continued.

“If you go out and hire some big group to come in, right in the middle of your concert you could have trains going through,” he said.

Bill Konyha, who again is heading the Stellar Grant committee, was please with Monday’s meeting.

“We basically went through and re-established the priorities of the projects,” he said.

Another aspect of the Stellar Grant plan is the refurbishing of homes in the City of Wabash.

Patrick Sullivan, executive director of Wabash Marketplace Inc., is overseeing that aspect of the project.

WMI is working with Region III-A Economic Development District & Regional Planning Commission to develop the proposal for the funding which seeks $1.2 million to help rehab homes.

“We’ve had a pretty overwhelming response,” he said of those seeking possible grant funding.

More than 40 applications have already been filed seeking help in refurbishing homes.

“They’re in the process of plotting them, seeing where they fall in the community,” Sullivan said. “They’re also getting them involved in the application process to make sure that they qualify based on income requirements and those things.”

To qualify, homeowners must Wabash residents 55 years of age or older and/or disabled residents, Sullivan said.

There is no cost to the homeowner, Sullivan continued, noting that there is a maximum of $20,000 per home to be used to repair roofs, install new furnaces, new water heaters, ramps, handrails and other necessary repairs.

Sullivan said the repair money is paid back by a “forgivable loan” meaning basically that homeowners cannot refinance, sell or move from your home for a short period of time and the repairs will be done at no cost to the homeowner.

Vanlandingham believes that being able to pinpoint specific homes that will be refurbished will help in the Stellar review process.

“I think what we’re going to have now, instead of saying here’s an area we want to do something with, we can say, ‘Here’s a home that we’re going to do this, this and this to it,” he said.

Wabash is one of six cities that were named Stellar Grant finalists for 2014. This is the city’s second straight year as a finalist. It finished third in the 2013 program.