The Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs has declined to review the West Central region’s proposal for the Regional Cities Initiative because it said applicants did not follow requirements pertaining to the formation of regional development authorities.
Despite this, the region’s plan is still under consideration to win state funding for various quality-of-life projects in Terre Haute, Sullivan and Vincennes. Six other regions are competing for a pair of $42 million grants, which will be awarded to two winning regions.
West Central (Wabash River) region’s proposals include renovating the former ICON factory building in Terre Haute, building a precision agriculture facility for Ivy Tech Community College, constructing an equine facility at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, continuing the Sullivan Civic Center project and funding renovations of a historic theater in Vincennes.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. enlisted the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs to review the seven regions’ proposals submitted for the initiative.
Community and Rural Affairs was asked to apply the same selection standards it uses in the state’s Stellar Communities grant program. In doing so, Community and Rural Affairs discovered that the Wabash River Region did not form its development authority until after West Central submitted its proposal to the IEDC.
Upon that discovery, Community and Rural Affairs stopped its review of the West Central proposal. “We didn’t critique it. We just didn’t review it,” said Bill Konyha, executive director of Community and Rural Affairs.
“It was our understanding that [the regional development authority deadline] was an absolute requirement,” Konyha said Tuesday.
“If this were a Stellar Communities application, this is the way we would’ve handled it,” he added.
The development authority will be a five-member body responsible for prioritizing local projects to receive funding. Members, who cannot be officeholders, are to be appointed by governmental bodies in Vigo, Sullivan and Knox counties.
Konyha made a presentation of his office’s review of the seven proposals on Tuesday in Indianapolis’ Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The West Central proposal was the only one Community and Rural Affairs chose not to review. “The other six would have met all the other [Stellar Communities] threshold documents,” Konyha said.
He emphasized that his office did not make recommendations on which proposals should be selected for the two $42 million Regional Cities Initiative allotments, which are to be announced in December by an IEDC committee. The reviews by Community and Rural Affairs served only as information for the selection committee to consider, Konyha said.
A coalition of representatives from higher education, government and business sectors in Vigo, Sullivan and Knox counties helped build the proposal. Each county council voted to approve their county’s involvement in the development authority.
Mary Jane Michalak, an adviser to the planning committee from Thomas P. Miller and Associates in Indianapolis, told the Tribune-Star in an email message that the development authority was created before the region made its pitch to the state in person. Each of the seven regions’ proposals were available online several weeks before the presentations.
“Because of the short time frame for submission of the proposal (we were not sure we would qualify because our region has under 200k people), the Wabash River Region group chose to garner stakeholder support from community before getting council approval,” she stated. “All county councils have approved the RDA unanimously and all supported the proposal.”
Planning committee member Greg Goode said, despite Community and Rural Affairs assessment, he still feels “really good” about the region’s prospects.
Goode, executive director of government relations at Indiana State University, said he felt the committee rightly took time working with each of the county councils to explain the initiative’s purpose and the role of the development authorities.
“And we felt that the time needed to dedicate to that was important,” he said. “And we have received positive encouragement from the IEDC. I feel very good about where we are right now.”
The Tribune-Star’s Mark Bennett contributed to this report.