Community

Regional Cities Initiative Helping

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To the right is an article that appeared in The Pilot News, December 18, 2017 discussing the impact of the Regional Cities Initiative. The study was conducted by Ball State University and concluded that it is making a noticeable difference in attracting talented young workers to the area.

Marshall County is part of the North Central Region along with St. Joseph and Elkhart Counties. Most of the funds for our region have been allocated and in Marshall County we’re seeing the impact through assistance in worker housing, manufacturing centers, expanded Boys & Girls Club facilities and an Aquatic Center. In Culver alone, the initiative has helped the Town provide infrastructure to Sand Hill Farm for entry-level housing and money has been set aside for assistance with an E-Commerce center which may provide entrepreneurial opportunities and worker training space. (Culver was in line for additional RCI grants, but the 60% private equity requirement proved daunting for a small community to achieve.)

It’s important to recognize what our local organizations have done to achieve these goals. Marshall County would not have had this opportunity without the foresight of the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) and their initial investment of $10k into the program. That seed money was what put us on the map for this and made the initial connections to St. Joseph and Elkhart Counties. If Linda Yoder hadn’t taking this to the MCCF board and sold it, it wouldn’t have happened.

The hand-off from there went to Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC). Without their efforts, many of the projects submitted by Marshall County would not have made the list before the application was submitted. Then the follow up to keep the dollars allocated to Marshall County stayed with Marshall County largely came down to the shepherding of Jerry Chavez and MCEDC. They were able to get a reallocation of funds to housing initiatives when original projects fell through and then when one of the four housing projects didn’t come to fruition, they were able to secure the money towards the other projects that were viable.

The money that went to the housing project in Culver helped Culver achieve Stellar Community designation this year. It’s a domino effect and currently the dominos are falling in our direction. This was former Governor Mike Pence’s vision when he spearheaded this program. Inject funds into regions that demonstrate the desire and determination to move forward and great things can happen. Let’s hope this continues to buoy our region, county and communities creating the excitement and drive to move us forward.

SRKM Christmas ’17

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We received a very cool Christmas Card (right) from our friends at SRKM Architecture. They used an elevation from Sand Hill Farm apartments as their cover picture adding a couple of wreaths on the door. A great idea to memorialize the project this way! We really appreciate their efforts and can’t wait to see if the building looks as good in person as it does in pictures. Thanks guys! Merry Christmas!

Sand Hill Farm Apartments are moving along. Footing and frost walls have been poured. We’re taking advantage of this week’s warm spell to get the perimeter insulation in place and complete the backfill. Installation of interior underslab infrastructure will begin Thursday. We hope to be pouring slabs next week. Things are moving forward!

State Exchange Bank – 1936

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Excerpt from the Culver Citizen, December 15, 2017

The picture to the right was in the Friday, December 15, 2017 edition of the Culver Citizen. As I’ve discussed here before, a portion of Easterday Construction’s early years were spent on the second floor of the State Exchange Bank in downtown Culver. By inference, I believe that we would have been there at this time. (Easterday Construction was started some time in the 1920’s and didn’t move to its current location until the 1950’s.)

I recently toured the second floor of the bank building and assessed some of the facade repairs needed. Even with my experience it’s hard to see the old building pictured here under the remodeled skin that is on it now. It would be interesting to see the plans that made the transition. With the current trend towards preservation, led in Indiana by Indiana Landmarks, pictures like this bring new perspective. From experience, no one took any time to preserve what gets buried since the new facade is an improvement. Why would anyone ever want to go back? Which makes going back cost prohibitive. But the nostalgia of pictures like these can’t help but prompt some bittersweet what-if’s…

Since Easterday Construction resided in the building at that time, I have to wonder if we did the renovation discussed. Did we add the cafeteria? As a tenant, was my great grandfather a regular there? It’s interesting to speculate, but those are things lost to history.

Thanks to Judith Burns for making the picture available to the Citizen through her website.

Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony

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The Town of Culver and their Workforce Housing Committee have been working on solutions to workforce housing for the past three years. Housing was the centerpiece of our Stellar Communities plan the last two years. As the culmination of this hard work, Easterday Construction Co., Inc. and the Town of Culver are excited to announce the ground breaking ceremony for the Sand Hill Farm Apartments on November 8th at 3:00pm. The ground breaking will be at the site, 540 West Jefferson Street, in Culver.

Sand Hill Farm apartments will have a mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments totaling 24 units. The development is geared towards the goals of increasing housing opportunities, attracting new families, increasing population and increasing school enrollment.

This will be a great kick-off to our Stellarbration at the beach lodge immediately after this. Hopefully you have that event on your calendar as well.

Thank you to all that helped make this possible! We hope you can take the time to help us kick the project off right.

Relay for Life – 17

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The article to the right appeared in the November 3rd issue of the Culver Citizen. Everyone here at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. is proud of our part in making this possible. Several of us walked at the event in memory of Kathy Pearson, a dear friend and co-worker, who was taken by breast cancer. Thank you to Julie Heise for organizing our group. She brought her whole family out for the event. Thanks to Scott & Connie Bennett for their help as well.

Congratulations to the organizers for winning the national award. Just from the effort it took to get a team together, we understand the phenomenal effort it took to put the event together. From the band to the food to the organization of the  event, we were impressed with it all. Great Job!