Despite all the roadblocks thrown in her way -- literally and figuratively -- first-term Greencastle Mayor Lynda Dunbar remains optimistic, undaunted and to the point on the city, its present and its future.
In her State of the City remarks Wednesday to the Greencastle Rotary Club at the Inn at DePauw, Mayor Dunbar spoke candidly about issues like the U.S. 231 reconstruction work and the YMCA project that have dominated her initial 150 days in office as the city’s first Republican mayor in 36 years.
“It’s gone super fast,” Dunbar said of the first five months as the city’s chief executive after 12 years as clerk-treasurer. “I can’t believe we’re already getting into June.”
As expected, the $13 million Indiana Department of Transportation project rebuilding U.S. 231 through Greencastle generated the most dialogue at the meeting.
“I usually start out apologizing for the INDOT project,” Mayor Dunbar smiled, noting she has a meeting with INDOT officials next week that should provide an update on the work that is expected to take until Thanksgiving to complete.
“They’re a little bit not on schedule,” she noted while quick to acknowledge how badly the roadway reconstruction has been needed.
“They remembered we had a 100-year-old water line,” the mayor added of the INDOT effort, “but forgot we also have a 100-year-old sewer line.”
And as the construction crew from Rieth-Riley tried to deal with that sewer line, “it just kept breaking,” Dunbar said, because it was “brittle and old” and comprised of some crumbling clay substance.
The new water line that will be installed represents a bargain for city taxpayers, Dunbar pointed out after former Mayor Bill Dory noted from the audience that the city is only paying $400,000 as its share of the $2.5 million water line agreed upon during his administration.
Another good thing about the water line, Dunbar told the Rotarians, is that it will no longer be located under the street but will be off to the side, “so if we have to work on it, we won’t have to tear up the road.”
The city won’t be as lucky with the sewer line, which will be under the street, “pretty close to the middle of the road,” the mayor said.
Responding to a question about whether anything interesting was discovered in all the digging downtown, Dunbar pointed to the old steam tunnel that ran from the courthouse. Early on, plans were to dig it up and remove it but that proved tougher than expected and now the line is being left in the roadway, sealed off and filled with some sort of material to make its presence stable.
Turning to the YMCA project off State Road 240, east of the Walmart Supercenter, Mayor Dunbar noted that early rain and lingering water problems, coupled with steel issues, have pushed the completion date back from December of this year to an opening in February 2025. Currently the project is “going along nicely,” the mayor said.
“What about the pool?” she asked, knowing that question was coming as she continued the Putnam County YMCA update. “There have been some preliminary designs but we won’t know until DePauw gets information about the Lilly grant and we’re able to make that determination.”
The grant decision by Lilly is expected sometime in July.
A pool is only likely to happen if the community, through DePauw, is awarded a $25 million Lilly Endowment College and Community Collaboration Initiative grant. Before the possibility of that grant arose, city officials had dismissed a pool within the YMCA as too costly to build and too expensive to maintain.
Meanwhile, in another partnership involving the community, a housing study will consider needs for all kinds of housing in the city and the county, the mayor said, while addressing price point and apartments as well.
Four bids have been received from firms wanting to do the study with a selection committee of city and county officials meeting within the next week or two to select the winning bid.
“Housing is something we want to do right the first time,” the mayor stressed. “Everybody wants to come in a build apartments because they’re cheaper to do. But we need so many (types of housing).”
A project hoping to put in 120 market-value apartment units south of the downtown and near campus is also in the planning stages. Because of the parking needs that would generate, Dunbar said, some sort of parking structure would be included under the units.
“That really should be an economic boost to the downtown and restaurants and stores,” she said. “I’ve really been taken aback and excited to hear from older people who have said they’re ready to move to retirement life and would like to move downtown and be able to walk to the restaurants and everything.”
Another downtown project in the planning stages is installation of decorative lighting along North Jackson Street and party lights around the square and its environs.
“It’ll be more of a set-up like Georgia Street in downtown Indianapolis,” she advised of the party lights, indicating instead of being anchored into the buildings, the lights would be draped on poles surrounding the area. “They’re pulling away from the buildings,” Dunbar said of the damage that’s showing up. “We don’t want them to lose any bricks.”
The lighting project will also include new electrical outlets downtown that will be flush with the pavement and able to handle the electrical needs of food trucks and farmers’ market vendors.
Meanwhile, the mayor said she worries about keeping city police and fire personnel.
“We’re going to struggle with our police and fire,” she warned. “Poaching from other departments has begun. If we want to keep them, we’re going to have to pay them.”
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