Community

Voter Responsibility

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I haven’t posted a good rant in a while, so…

The “Brexit” vote has me thinking about voter responsibility. I honestly only knew about Brexit peripherally until about a week before the vote. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to it for a couple of reasons: 1) I had no say, and 2) I didn’t really see that it was going to affect me much. A 20/20 hindsight look at the turmoil in the stock market and how that affects my 401(k) negates #2, but in reality, #1 was still valid. No matter how much concern I had placed on it, I wasn’t in a position to do anything about it. I can’t even name one British citizen I know that I could have gone up to and said, “Look here Old Chap, you need to do the right thing because this decision is going to affect the whole world!” Not that I even thought that. I had pretty much trusted those in the know to have factored either result into the markets and that the outcome would be a blip outside of Great Britain.

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Heart of the Tippy

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PCPL - Heart of the Tippy Reception

We’ve done quite a bit of work for the Pulaski County Public Library over the past decade or so and have a developed a good working relationship with the current (and past) Librarian and the Library Board. We are currently working on a couple of projects that will tie into their centennial celebration of the Carnegie Library in Winamac. (More on that in a future post.)

The Pulaski County Public Library is a beautiful venue for events like this. They have several large rooms suitable for gatherings and the setting just above the river and park has great views from expansive windows. The library is located at 121 South Riverside Drive in Winamac, Indiana. Everything they do is first class, so I have no doubt that this event will be as well. I plan to be there!

Lt. Governor Holcomb Announces 2016 Stellar Communities Designation Program Finalists – Culver Makes the Cut!

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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:

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.