I borrowed the picture and logo above from the Culver Triathlon website. The organizers came before the Town Council to request help with closing the streets for an hour during the biking portion of the event on August 8th. According to their presentation, this is the second fastest growing triathlon in the nation and they are expecting more that 500 participants this year. I don’t know, but I would say a conservative estimate would be that each participant equates to two spectators. That would be doubling the population of Culver that day.
And here’s the rant…
I received a copy of the Marshall County Visitors Guide in the Culver Citizen last week. Then I received a copy in the Pilot News. Really!?! Yes, this is a rant…
Lets start with a little history… Easterday Construction Co., Inc. has been a member of the Culver Chamber of Commerce since well before I came to join the company. I served on the board for several years, during which time we were asked to budget for a page in the Marshall County Visitors Guide. I had the distinction of being the sole no vote on that item every year. I saw no value in it for the majority of our membership. The cost of this ad at more than 25% of the annual Chamber budget seemed ill-advised considering some of the other programs that we were successfully pursuing. Needless to say I was overruled. The arguments for supporting the guide were mainly two: 1) Culver was prominently displayed in the guide and 2) It was designed to reach an audience outside Marshall County to attract tourism. My rebuttals were that Culver was prominently displayed anyway since our town is the primary tourist destination for the County and that with the advent of the Internet, how often was a paper guide book of value?
Please join us tomorrow, May 1st at 10:15am as Governor Pence visits to provide an overview of the 2015 legislative session at The Vault (located inside The Exchange), 112 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend.
This is a great opportunity for business and community leaders from our region to thank the Governor for his advocacy of the Regional Cities Initiative and for making it a priority in budget negotiations with the legislators. Also to demonstrate the great enthusiasm and regional collaboration occurring in north central Indiana as we now move forward in the competition to earn half of the $84M slated in the budget to support our Regional Cities of Northern Indiana projects.
If you are not able to attend the update, please consider sending a note to Governor Pence via his constituent representative at: kkane@gov.in.gov. Having the governor hear a huge thank you from the business community will be extremely helpful for future funding years.
Provided by Linda Yoder, Executive Director, Marshall County Community Foundation
Image Source: Inside Indiana Business
The Affordable Housing Task Force met on Monday the 27th to discuss the information Jonathan Leist, Culver Town Manager, had assembled through various meetings. I attended four of the six meetings he reported on and was able to help fill in background. In a nutshell, there are opportunities and developers that can be enticed to do work.
In a MCEDC site visit with Elkay, we were able to recruit Elkay’s management to assist us in our endeavors. Two Elkay representatives attended the Monday meeting and brought demographics for our use. They also volunteered to help with surveying to determine how many Elkay employees would be interested in relocating to Culver if housing were made available.
In the meeting with IHCDA, we learned that funds are available, but only for income based housing projects, not market based housing. We did find that much of the projected income based rental rates are actually above the local market rate rents.
The Task Force agreed that it would be prudent to pursue both market based and income based housing to keep our options open. The group tasked Jonathan to take a couple of things before the Town Council: 1) A budget for a Needs Assessment Survey and 2) A tentative agreement to consider tax abatement for the properties. (Tax Abatement was requested by all of the developers Jonathan met.) Jonathan accomplished #2 at last night’s Council meeting, but #1 was not approved as it would require an additional appropriation for the unbudgeted cost.
Image Source: www.homeloanstoday.com
I sit on the Affordable Housing Task Force for Culver and as part of that as well as wearing my MCEDC hat, I sat in on a meeting at the Culver Library with Darin Edwards, Underwriting and Closing Manager for IHCDA. The meeting was arranged by Jerry Chavez, MCEDC Executive Director, and included representatives from the Marshall County communities of Culver, Argos, Plymouth and Bremen.