Indianapolis – Today, Lt. Governor Eric Holcomb announced the six communities who are the division 1 and division 2 finalists for the 2016 Stellar Communities Designation Program (SCDP).
Established in 2011, the SCDP began as a collaboration between the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA), Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) and Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to support community planning and development initiatives by streamlining access to available funding sources and capacity building resources. Through the annual designation, the Stellar Communities Designation Program provides resources for transformative quality of place community improvements by utilizing previous planning efforts, leveraging existing assets, fostering regional investments and stimulating continued growth for long-term relevance.
“Cities and towns across Indiana continue to benefit from a strong business climate that makes them attractive places to live, work, and play, and the Stellar Communities Designation Program remains an important catalyst fostering local economic growth,” said Holcomb. “I congratulate this year’s six finalists for taking this pivotal step of identifying key projects in line with their assets and visions for the future. I look forward to visiting each of the finalist communities over the next few months to see firsthand the state and local collaborations helping our hometowns thrive well into the future.”
Finalist communities are separated into a division based on their population. division 1 is for communities with populations 6,000–50,000 and division 2 is for populations 5,999 and below.
Ten communities submitted proposals for the 2016 SCDP. After evaluating the letters of interest, the top six communities were chosen as finalists.
2016 Stellar Communities Designation Program Finalists:
Division 1:
- City of Rushville (Rush)
- City of Shelbyville (Shelby)
- City of Warsaw (Kosciusko)
Division 2:
- Town of Corydon (Harrison)
- Town of Culver (Marshall)
- City of Union City (Randolph)
As finalist communities, each will receive a planning grant to either create or build upon existing local Strategic Investment Plans, detailing projects, partnerships and proposed sources of funding. Site visits will then be conducted by the Stellar Team which is comprised of representatives from the partnering agencies who follow a standard agenda and set of questions. Later this summer, one community from each division will be named a 2016 Stellar Communities Designee.
Since its inception, the SCDP partnership has grown to include:
- Indiana Arts Commission (IAC)
- Indiana Bond Bank
- Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
- Indiana Finance Authority (IFA)
- Indiana Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (OSBE)
- Indiana Office of Tourism and Development (IOTD)
- Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity (DNPA)
- Serve Indiana
While OCRA, INDOT and IHCDA have made financial commitments to the program, all eleven agencies will provide a high level of technical skills that will support leveraging the existing assets already within the community. Their efforts will focus on building human capital, supporting existing businesses, creating a spirit of entrepreneurship, redeveloping commercial property and infrastructure, preserving natural and cultural amenities and improving the health and well-being of residents, which fosters the creation of a vital destination.
Previous Stellar Communities:
- 2011 – North Vernon and Greencastle
- 2012 – Princeton and Delphi
- 2013 – Richmond and Bedford
- 2014 – Huntingburg and Wabash
- 2015 – Crawfordsville and North Liberty
Funding for the Stellar Communities Designation Program comes from multiple existing federal and state programs.
MCEDC
Plymouth High School Robotics Competition
Because of my position on the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) Grants Committee, I was fortunate enough to see the beginnings of the Robotics Club at Plymouth High School. I knew Principal Jim Condon as a fellow Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) Board Member. He introduced me to Josh Kuhn and Kennedy Schneider, two Plymouth High School students who, without the knowledge of the school, entered and won the State Vex Robotics Competition. (I found this article discussing the original team in the South Bend Tribune. I’ve embedded a link to them winning the State Championship below.) The School then helped them move on to the World competition in California. The school then applied for a grant from MCCF to start a formal robotics club the following year. I vetted the school’s grant application for a robotics program and was pleased to champion it with the MCCF Grants Committee. MCCF awarded them a significant grant to begin the program.
Coming full circle, Principal Condon told me last Friday that three years after that start-up, Plymouth High School’s Robotics Club would be hosting a northern Indiana competition on Saturday and would be fielding six teams. The event ran from 9 until 4. Due to other commitments I could only go for the afternoon. Becky and I got there about 1:30 and as it turned out, that was about right as we were in time for the to see the team selection process and the beginning of the elimination rounds.
Principal Condon was kind enough to take a few minutes to sit with us and update me on the status of the program as well as tell us a little about what we were seeing. The teams were ranked and then through a school yard pick, divided up into teams of three. The teams then competed head to head for two out of three wins in competition matches to advance to the finals.
I don’t think I could do justice to a description of the competition here. Suffice it to say it was a combination of driving skill, defense, ball collection and ball shooting skill as they collected balls around the arena and attempted to get them into the goal net. The robots shot the balls using impellers, catapults and paddles. The students were given specifications and a parts list they could use last summer and then they spent months developing CAD models of their robots. They are required to provide a detailed manual describing the design process and the construction process which is part of the judging process. At competitions they are judged on not only their competence in the arena, but on style and presentation.
I’m probably unjustified in being proud of the very small part I played in helping with this. But seeing the enthusiasm of the kids and the obvious pride they have in their efforts was heartwarming. I’ll have no problem going back to MCCF and telling them that the grant money invested in the program was well spent.
Plymouth Town Hall Vision Meeting
For those of you that missed the Vision Meetings in Argos and Culver, there is another opportunity to attend and voice your opinion. A third Town Hall Meeting is being held in Plymouth this Saturday. See the flyer to the right. I have also included the text of a press release MCEDC is sending out to the local media below.
This is an important topic as we make decisions on how to move Marshall County forward. I hope to see you there!
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Press Release
Plymouth, IN (February 3, 2016) – The Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) will be holding a Town Hall meeting at the Plymouth Council Chambers this Saturday, February 6th at 10am. The meeting will address the Marshall County Vision, an effort supported by community leaders and a citizen’s group of 120 members and growing whose goal is to improve the quality of life of all Marshall County residents.
The Marshall County Vision is an initiative aimed at raising awareness of the needs that our community faces and building consensus on the ways in which we can securing funding and implement long-term development plans to meet these needs. Specifically, the long-term plans proposed by the initiative will require $27 MM in funding for community development and $52 MM for county-wide roadwork. These funds will be used to extend the Metronet, improve infrastructure, create more affordable housing, increase workforce development efforts, and repair and maintain 911 miles of road in Marshall County.
Since the Vision initiative began last summer, MCEDC has presented it to elected officials and at 7 service organizations across the county, as well as Town Hall meetings in Bourbon, Argos, and Culver. These meetings have resulted in greater support for the Vision initiative, and we hope the upcoming Plymouth Town Hall meeting will do the same. More importantly however, these meetings have given community members a chance to voice their opinions and build consensus on the development plans which will impact our county’s future.
According to MCEDC President/CEO, Jerry Chavez, Marshall County already has the tools necessary to secure funding to improve our community, we just need to implement them. He states, “No one else is going to help Marshall County, we have to help ourselves. That’s what the Marshall County Vision is all about.”
All Plymouth residents are encouraged to come to the meeting and learn how they can make Marshall County a better place to live and work for years to come. For more information, please contact Jerry Chavez, President/CEO, at (574) 935-8499.
About Marshall County Economic Development Corporation:
The Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) is the lead countywide economic development organization servicing Marshall County, the City of Plymouth, and the Towns of Bremen, Bourbon, Argos, Culver, and LaPaz. MCEDC’s mission is to expand and diversify the economy of the county and its communities by fostering investment in new and existing businesses and creating entrepreneurial capacity. Visit MCEDC on the web at www.marshallcountyedc.org, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
Marshall County Vision (Culver Thoughts)
I was very pleased with the turn out Saturday for MCEDC’s presentation on Marshall County Vision. There was good participation and good support. When the discussion turned to Regional Cities, I didn’t see much enthusiasm. That concerns me. Whenever I speak to anyone about Culver’s place in Regional Cities I get one of two responses (Or sometimes a combination of both.):
- We don’t have enough information to do anything yet.
- We don’t have much chance of getting any of the money. What little comes to Marshall County will go to Plymouth.
First off, we should acknowledge how fortunate we are. Out of seven regions, we were selected as one of the top three. Then it was decided to award to the top three in lieu of just the top two as originally planned. The scuttlebutt is that we were number three and And then think about Kosciusko County. They are probably kicking themselves right now. They were invited to be part of our region, but instead decided they would be better served being part of the Fort Wayne Region. Now instead of being one of four Counties dividing up $42 million they are one of thirteen!
But Marshall County and the Marshall County communities needs to get off our collective butts and start figuring out how we can benefit from this. We are starting out at a disadvantage. The other two Counties in our region, St. Joseph and Elkhart, have dedicated staff that are working on this. The cities of South Bend, Mishawaka and Elkhart have City Engineers that they can dedicate to this. Marshall County doesn’t have the equivalent staff put on this. We’re going to have to overcome that in order to move things forward if we don’t want negative attitude #2 above to come to fruition.
As far as the lack of information goes, everyone in the three winning regions is in the same boat. Are they just sitting and waiting? The Fort Wayne region has CEDIT. (Remember how we’re one of the few counties in northern Indiana that doesn’t have CEDIT?) They are down at the State House lobbying for the ability to raise their CEDIT in order to have the extra funds needed to fully fund their matching $42 million. It doesn’t sound like they’re sitting on the sidelines waiting for more information…
My thought process is that “planning” costs very little. The County needs to convene a meeting with the communities and work through prioritizing their projects. Rather than working on these tasks individually, we can maybe pool resources and make the most of what we have. Additional “shell buildings” are included for several communities. How about we sit down and look at Plymouth’s shell building as a model. Do we want to duplicate that? Probably not. So what do we want to change? We can talk to land owners and try and tie down sites. We can get contractor estimates. None of that costs money, but any of that time spent now would move things ahead. Ditto for the Entrepreneurial Hubs. We could be determining locations. Talking to other communities that have them and figuring out the good and bad. Getting contractor estimates. This thinking could apply to all of the projects on the original submittal.
Culver is on the list for both of the above items plus a few more. Jerry Chavez and MCEDC thinks Culver may have the best opportunities to advance these things. Opportunity is knocking. Or as Jerry is fond of saying, “The economic development train is passing right by us. It’s our obligation to flag down that train. It’s not going to stop here of it’s own volition.”