Nancy Tyree with Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) did a great article for the Pilot News that gives an update on the progress in Culver. It appeared in the December 12, 2016 addition of the paper. This is the second in a series that MCEDC is doing on all the communities in Marshall County. The first one on Argos appeared last month. For those of you that don’t get the Pilot, I’ve reprinted the Culver article below.
This is one of the things MCEDC is doing to help promote the communities. We hope to put this out in other formats in the near future as a snapshot of what is happening in our communities. This should be useful to companies considering relocating to Culver and Marshall County. It gives you the flavor of the community and lets you know that things are happening here! Feel free to give Nancy feedback at: Nancy@marshallcountyedc.org
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Home to the second largest natural lake in Indiana and a private boarding school with national acclaim, it’s easy to view Culver as a resort town. But for the people who live there, it’s not a vacation spot—it’s a home, and they’re dedicated to the Town’s preservation and growth. Town Council President, Ginny Munroe describes Culver as, “a community of planners,” stating, “we have a track record of success with community involvement and thrive on taking on projects—no challenge is too big.” Town Council member Tammy Shaffer agrees, “Every project we take on has sustainability in mind. That’s what’s going to keep our small Town thriving.” Culver business owner and Marshall County Economic Development Corporation Board member, Kevin Berger, adds, “Our comprehensive plan, Stellar proposal, and housing development are all community-based collaborations.” It is no surprise then, what this collaborative, planning community has achieved in the last few years.
Updated from Original Post 12-8-16: Culver has decided to commit to going after Stellar Community status in 2017. This is a follow-up to the 2016 attempt. While we were unsuccessful last year, the reviewers said we did nothing wrong – we were just out done by the competition which had huge support from their County, Community Foundation and private funding. In order to beef up our presentation this year and “dream bigger” as recommended by the reviewers, the Culver Stellar Committee is looking for some things to add to our list. Here are a few ideas that I think should be considered.
Town-wide Wi-Fi – I think it would be great if we could be a connected community. I think we could probably accomplish this with a transmitter on the First Farmers Bank & Trust Building for the Downtown and the Lake House Grille tower for the Midtown area. Possibly something at Park ‘n Shop would cover the Uptown area. Another option would be to possibly add it to the new street light system (though this might be too late). I know some communities work out something with a local provider to give an hour of free service a day with a hourly fee for additional service there after. That’s if the Town determines the cost to be prohibitive. (Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery. Plymouth has this…)
Sidewalk History – I think it would be interesting to replace sidewalk sections with historical notes about the town. They could be random historical facts or where appropriate, facts relating to the location. Examples of random items could be a line from a Cole Porter song, a George Steinbrenner quote or a line from one of the movies filmed in Culver. Specifics could be something about the Great Bank Robbery in front of the FFBT downtown from when it was the State Exchange Bank, the caricature of Mr. T with the Pill in front of Diva or something about the Corner Tavern, Snyder’s Hardware, Verl’s Barber Shop or any of the dozens of historical structures that Jeff Kenney used to mention in his walks down Main Street… I would suggest that the Town fund review and if they approve an application, fund that panel completely. (Okay, I stole this idea from a recent visit to Key West, but per the image, St. Paul is doing it too…)
There are some other ideas that have already been added to the list by others. These include a history mural on the theater (a revival of a Second Century project from years ago), a renovation of the theater into a mixed use venue to possibly include performing arts, and expansion of both the Beach Lodge renovation project and the Cavalier Park projects. Most of my ideas are smaller ancillary projects, but go along with the general comments that we needed to tie everything together. Most of these would affect all of the individual bigger projects.
If you have any ideas to add, feel free to do so here and I’ll be happy to carry them to the committee if you don’t have time to participate personally.
Thursday, July 21st, Culver had their evaluation from the various state agencies on their Stellar Communities application. I have been involved with this project from the beginning and on Thursday I not only served as a golf cart driver, but also as a presenter at a couple of the sites. For those of you that might be interested I thought I might give my impressions of the day and a brief synopsis of what happened.
Thursday was the culmination a lot of work but it all came together at 9:00 at the Depot in the park. Twenty representatives from OCRA, IHCDA, IAC, INDOT, Serve IN, IOTD, ISDH, and DNR arrived at the Depot along with many of our local regional partners. Representatives from Marshall County, City of Plymouth, Argos, Bourbon, MCEDC and many others showed up to show how important this was not just to Culver but to our surrounding area. Blueprints on each of the seven projects were given to the attendees. These were the boiled down bullet points from the overall investment plan that was submitted last month. Mark Damore Jr. then made introductions and briefly warmed up the crowd before introducing the Town Council President, Ginny Munroe, who gave a speech on what Culver to the Max meant, how it evolved, and a bit of her personal story on coming back to Culver. That was followed by Jonathan Leist giving a very brief synopsis of the projects.
Saturday night Becky and I attended a farewell party for John and Pam Buxton at John and Carol Zeglis’s home. John Buxton is leaving his position as Head of Schools at the Culver Academies and they will be moving to the east coast. John and Carol honored them by asking representatives of the various charitable and service boards and committees they served on over their tenure at Culver to come and say a few words about their service to the community. I am sure I will miss some, but there were representatives there from the Marshall County Community Foundation, Leadership Marshall County, LIFT, Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Council, Lake Maxinkuckee Gift of Warmth (Film Festival), Culver Boys & Girls Club, Culver Lions Club, St. Joe Regional Medical Center and the Town of Culver.
There were 30 guests in attendance and as John Zeglis said, there was as much overlap between those in attendance as there was between the various groups and the Buxtons. I know I have had interactions with all of these groups and served on several of their boards and subcommittees.
Both of the Buxtons have been very involved in our community. While most of my direct involvement was with Pam, I witnessed John’s influence in many other areas. To paraphrase one of John’s comments, “When you are guiding the 900 pound gorilla through a community you don’t always get to participate in some of the hands on things which interest you.” While that’s true, their influence was felt and their presence will be missed.