I was pretty impressed with the turn out for the Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony last Tuesday, November 5th. There were around 35 people there including representatives from the Town, County and State. Town Council President – Ginny Munroe, County Commissioner – Kevin Overmyer and Lake City Bank Representative – Dale Cramer all spoke in support of the project. I truly appreciated the kudos. We broke out the gold shovels and made a showing of it for the Press.
The theme from everyone was how this was a first step towards addressing Culver and Marshall County’s workforce housing needs. Currently, Marshall County has an unemployment rate of less than 3%. The general “rule” is that once it gets below 4%, everyone that wants to work is working. Since there are still jobs going unfilled, the next step would be to recruit labor from outside the County. That’s difficult when there isn’t housing available for those new workers. Sand Hill Farm hopes to be a first step towards addressing this. This is Easterday Construction being a community partner/leader.
Along with the several of our area newspapers, we received coverage from the three major networks, ABC 57, WNDU 16 and WSBT 22. See WSBT links for video clips of the Stellerbration event and ABC 57 and WNDU 16 for a little more about the Sand Hill Farm ground breaking. They were all kind with their video editing and made us look good!
Housing was the signature piece of Culver’s Stellar Communities application and I truly think we wouldn’t have scored as highly without the Phase I portion of this project underway. It showed that even without winning Stellar designation last year, Culver moved forward, addressing the needs identified in our Strategic Investment Plan. Having Regional Cities also put money towards this project was positive too. It showed a regional commitment that the State values. At several of the presentations, I was pleased to stand with Culver’s three largest employers, Elkay Wood Products, Culver Community School Corporation and Culver Academies, as their representatives spoke about the needs this project was addressing and how this needs to be just the start.
Tuesday was a true ground breaking as we made our presentations with an excavator working in the background. Currently the building pad is nearly complete and the excavator should be cutting in footings in the next week. the site looks quite different.
We’re racing the weather to get the slab done so we can work through the winter. Since it is slab-on-grade construction, that means a fair amount of underground utility work needs to be completed as well. Cross your fingers for us!
It sounds like the Town will delay their street work until Spring. That shouldn’t affect us as long as they are complete sometime in June. The goal is to be open next summer before the new school year starts. That would meet many of our goals, i.e. increased Town population, increased school enrollment and an expanded labor pool.
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Thanks to Nancy Tyree at MCEDC for the pictures.
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Easterday Construction belongs to Indiana Landmarks. Their recent email newsletter includes some pictures of the Shady Rest Home on the east side of Plymouth. For anyone one interested, the County is looking at options to repurpose this facility since Bowen Center‘s decision to cease operations there. The following is an excerpt from the Indiana Landmarks site regarding the home.
“In the days before welfare and social programs, and before the establishment of hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted-living facilities, people in need often had nowhere to turn. In 1848, Indiana passed new legislation requiring every Indiana county to “provide a public place wherein the unfortunate poor might have care.” Eventually, all 92 Indiana counties established “poor farms,” where able-bodied residents worked to offset the cost of residential care.
Local fanfare accompanied the Marshall County home opening in 1893. As the architecture makes evident, the county intended to create a quality home for their neediest citizens. Wing and Mahurin — a firm renowned for its Romanesque Revival public buildings — designed a grand Superintendent’s Quarters, with living and work space for the director and residents. Originally called the Marshall County Infirmary, the place earned its “Shady Rest” nickname from the many shade and fruit trees planted on the property.
Unfortunately, demolition has claimed a majority of Indiana’s historic county homes. In continual service for more than a century, Shady Rest is an anomaly. The county sold the facility in 1998, but it continued to serve as the Otis R. Bowen Center Shady Rest Home, a private residential center for adults who suffer from mental illness.
The Bowen Center closed Shady Rest this summer, and Marshall County commissioners are looking for ways to put the campus back in use. The five-acre property includes the main building, a large c. 1893 barn, a 1920s well house, and a garage.
The main building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, which could make it eligible for Federal Rehabilitation Tax credits. Check out the National Register nomination for more interesting history about the Marshall County home. For more on efforts to find a reuse for the property, contact Marshall County commissioner Kurt Garner, 574-936-0613 or kurt.garner@gmail.com.”
Easterday Construction completed some renovation work on the facility back in the early 80’s. I was a plumber’s helper on part of that work, so I got to see some of the facility at that time. Unfortunately there wasn’t much effort to document projects at that time, so I don’t have any real details on what was done. I remember demolishing some nasty showers though!
It would be sad to lose this piece of history, though repurposing the facility may be challenging. Generally a buildings highest and best use is its original use and once that use has run its course, change is difficult. I’m sure with a little creativity, the County’s Committee on repurposing the building, currently being lead by Commissioner Kurt Garner, will find a suitable third life for this historic building.
There was an article in the Culver Citizen on April 7th answering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Stellar Communities program and the Town of Culver‘s plans to compete for the award again this year.
Culver competed in 2016 and was a finalist. The Town has been encouraged by the State Agencies sponsoring the program to compete again this year. The Town Council and the Town’s Stellar Committee have again taken up this challenge. I’ve include the article to the right and the continuation can be seen here.
Last Thursday I traveled to Carmel with a contingency from Culver (Ginny Munroe, Jonathan Leist, Anna Campbell and Mike Reese) to attend an information seminar on the 2017 Stellar Communities program. The meeting was hosted by Indiana Municipal Power Agency (IMPA) at their facility.
The meeting consisted of presentations by all the participating agencies, most of which are represented on the graphic to the right. The big three in this group for Culver are Indiana Office of Community & Rural Affairs (OCRA), Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority (IHCDA), and Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). But in saying that, that is where we concentrated efforts last year, and hearing some of the presentations from other service providers there, we found that there are additional programs we should be considering. This was further emphasized in the breakout session where we were able to talk to representatives from each group and find out specifics on what programs might apply to Culver. We received a lot of encouragement from the people at the Arts Commission (IAC), Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and even the Indiana Bond Bank (IBB).
The agencies involved continue to go out of their way to emphasize that this is not a grant program. This is a program to accelerate initiatives that are already underway in the community. Three of last year’s projects, Sand Hill Farm Housing Development, the Community Bike/Pedestrian Trail and the improvements to the Beach Lodge/Park, are moving forward as we speak. To paraphase Jennifer Vandeburg, our OCRA Community Liaison, “Stellar Communities is designed to be nitrous in your community gas tank, giving that boost to allow projects with a 8-10 year horizon to accelerate to completion in 3-4 years.”
Jonathan Leist, Town Manager, recently reported that over 125 community members responded to the Stellar Survey he sent out. The survey was designed to assess whether the Stellar Committee was still on track. It also include a few additional projects to consider. While this is a good response, more is needed. One of the things we will be graded on is community participation and support.
Part of this community support is making sure that Culver’s various boards and commissions are behind this effort. The two major players in this field will be the Town Council (Ginny Munroe, Sally Ricciardi, Dave Beggs, Joel Samuelson, Tammy Shaffer and Town Clerk, Karen Heim) and the Redevelopment Commission (Brandon Cooper, Sue McInturff, Tammy Shaffer, Rich West, Tom Yuhas). Be sure and encourage any members of those two entities to get behind this effort. Go out of your way to do so! That doesn’t mean that many of the other boards and commission won’t play a role. Please also encourage the members of the Plan Commission, BZA, Tree Commission, etc. to do their part to support the effort. They all need to hear that the community is behind this.
Even if we don’t get Stellar this year (I hate to even say that!), the effort has no doubt been time and money well spent. Everyone we spoke to made mention of remembering our community and the golf cart tour. The golf cart I drove had two representatives from IHCDA, both of whom recognized me and spent extra time talking to me about our housing project. The representatives from DNR have now actually walked and ridden on part of our pedestrian trail, so when the plans comes before them, they can visualize the potential. The representatives from INDOT have actually ridden down Jefferson Street and understand the improvement needs. The representatives from the Arts Commission, having seen our Town, made specific suggestions on what they could do to help. I truly believe that our OCRA Community Liaison now is invested in seeing us succeed, where before we were just another one of many communities in her territory. As our President would say, “This is HUGE!” We have made great strides in building relationships that will pay off in the future. Go Stellar!