City officials are breathing a bit easier today, now that the Stellar Community Grant package has been turned in to the state.
The package, submitted to the state by American Structurepoint, was due by the end of business on Friday.
Indiana’s Stellar Communities Program is a collaborative effort by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) seeking to engage two communities to achieve a three-year revitalization strategy.
The city is competing with five other Hoosier cities -- Decatur, Huntingburg, Marion, Mount Vernon and Nashville – which were selected from 14 applications as finalists. The city finished third in the Stellar Grant competition last year behind Richmond and Bedford, coming in less than two points behind the two leading communities.
Officials spent most of the week finalizing the information, hoping to provide as many details about the city’s plans to use funding available through the Stellar Grant, should the city be chosen as one of the recipients.
“We have 8,000 people working on this even as we speak,” Committee chair Bill Konyha told the Plain Dealer midweek. “I have the latest draft on my desk, and it’s about 350 pages.”
He was busy reviewing financial information.
“We’re relying on others to review other parts of it,” Konyha, President and CEO of the Economic Development Group of Wabash County, continued.
Meanwhile, accountants from the London-Witte Group did the financial evaluation to make sure “we have all the right numbers showing all the right things that indicates how much excess TIF might be generated, how much can be contributed in support of these projects so we can demonstrate that in fact, we’re ready to do these projects,” he said.
A new aspect of the city’s package this year is a video that will be screened when Stellar program representatives visit the city on June 25.
“We have a video crew in town interviewing people, shooting film,” he said. “The producer is from Bedford, in fact it’s the organization that did the Bedford film last year. The technical crew is from Oklahoma City; they have been interviewing people. This is their second week.”
The film will be screened at the Eagles Theatre, one of the various projects earmarked should the city receive Stellar funds. If selected, the city will receive about $23 million in grants and tax incentives for a variety of projects, largely around the downtown area.
This year’s preparation has been considerably easier than it was last year, largely because a good portion of last year’s plan is being resubmitted.
“We had to create a plan last year,” Konyha said. “We conducted at least nine public meetings last year, and I don’t know how many focus groups and interviews, and had a lot of separate planning meetings, just to develop the plan.
“We already have the plan. It’s already been approved by the City Council and the Plan Commission. All we’ve done is tweak that plan a little, which has been a whole lot easier.”
The planning committee, he noted, only met once this year, but, he quickly points out, it lasted for four hours.
Committee member Patrick Sullivan said the six-week time frame the cities have to complete the plan is “a really difficult process.”
“Having done that process last year and knowing what to expect, we were very far along,” said Sullivan, Executive Director of Wabash Marketplace Inc. “Last year we had to dream up these projects …but also how do you get them done, who are the important partners and even what are these projects?
“This year we were able to show progress on these projects, which I think will certainly help our cause. But we also were able to make them more mature ideas.”