Calling the move an "investment in the future" of Henry County, the County Council has decided to move forward with the purchase of land on Ind. 3 for a new Ivy Tech Community College campus.
This week, the council voted to give the Henry County Commissioners the ability to negotiate and execute a contract to buy a former car dealership south of Walmart at 3335 S. Ind. 3.
The vote came after an hour of discussion during a joint meeting of the commissioners and the council on Wednesday afternoon. During the meeting, community leaders gave glowing statements about Ivy Tech and urged the council to do anything possible to find a campus in Henry County for the community college.
Steve Fisher, superintendent of the New Castle Community School Corp., told the council that a new campus would be "an investment in the future of our children."
"This is about your children, your grandchildren, their children," Fisher said at one point. "This is about the future of our community."
Likewise, Bob Grewe, president and CEO of the New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corp., said further workforce education is important to drawing businesses to Henry County. Grewe said Ivy Tech would help the county compete for new jobs.
"The competition is getting tougher every day," Grewe said.
Dr. Bob Jeffs, who represented Ivy Tech at the meeting, said with the new campus, the college plans to go from 300 students in Henry County to about 1,000 students.
After the county pays to renovate and purchase the dealership, Ivy Tech will be in charge of maintaining and operating the campus, Jeffs said. The college plans to invest about $600,000 a year into the campus for maintenance and salaries, Jeffs said.
He added that the college chose the dealership because it's handicapped accessible, because it's expandable and because of its location on Ind. 3.
Jeffs said it's usually up to communities and local governments to invest the money to start a new college.
"By putting a full-service campus here in a 14,000-square-foot facility, what you're able to do is reduce a lot of barriers," Jeffs said. "With a single class ... those folks are going to have better skills. Those skills are going to get them a few more dollars an hour."
The commissioners will be able to pay up to $525,000 for the four-acre property on Ind. 3. But the exact price tag will be determined later by two appraisals, which are being done this week. The commissioners plan to offer the average of the two appraisals to the investment group that owns the land.
The final price will impact how much money is available to other organizations that are competing for funds from the county's food and beverage tax.
According to figures that were first released on Wednesday, county government plans to spend about $2.7 million to $2.8 million on Ivy Tech and other food and beverage projects. Of that about $2.2 million will be the cost of purchasing and renovating the property for the new campus.
With about $1.7 million available from the food and beverage tax now, the county will use about $1 million of that amount for Ivy Tech and then bond the rest of the project to pay back over time.
"We have revenue coming in that's more than adequate to take care of that," Councilman Steve Dugger said Wednesday.
Then there will be about $550,000 to $640,000 available to spend on other projects that applied for food and beverage funding this fall.
However, all of those figures are rough estimates that could be changed based on how much the property on Ind. 3 costs and on interest rates.
The next step in the process for Ivy Tech is for the commissioners to present a proposal to the committee in charge of making recommendations for how to spend the food and beverage revenue. When exactly that will happen hadn't been determined on Thursday.
But when it comes to Ivy Tech, the committee's decision won't likely mean much. The Henry County Council has the final say on food and beverage expenditures, and all seven council members have spoken out in favor of the college.
© Copyright 2025, The Courier-Times, New Castle, IN.