Tag:Culver
Affordable Housing
Courtney Papa, District Director, Office of Senator Todd Young
Affordable Housing continues to be the buzzword. A couple of weeks ago I was at a meeting with Governor Holcomb and we spoke about the issue. One of his staff members is trying to connect with me on that. MacKenzie Ledley, Library Director for Pulaski County Public Libraries, made a connection with Courtney Papa, District Director for Senator Todd Young’s office. Courtney and MacKenzie met me for a tour of Sand Hill Farm Apartments this past Wednesday. The issue is on Senator Young’s radar as well.
It is clear that our political leaders recognize that there is an issue. In my discussion with Governor Holcomb, he had just finished a presentation on the great job climate in Indiana and their efforts to reverse out-migration trends. I raised the question regarding where these new residents were going to live? This seems to be a harder question to answer than how to bring in new business. I get it. I don’t have a solution either. He took notes and then proceeded with the follow-up.
What I do in these situations is explain what we’ve done here in Culver. It may not be an universal solution, but without the Town of Culver becoming a partner in these efforts, Sand Hill Farm apartments wouldn’t be here and there would be no consideration of The Paddocks, the next phase of housing at Sand Hill Farm development. Without the proposed IHCDA funding, The Paddocks will not happen.
CCMHS New Principal’s Office
Existing Media Room Office
During the construction of the new vestibule entrance at the Culver Community Middle High School, we were asked to duplicate the existing office in the former Media Room for a new Principal’s Office. This was a change order to the original project, but the goal was to keep it on a similar time line. The old office, shown to the right, was constructed using a block lower wall with hollow metal window frames in the upper area. The wire glass windows in the existing office are mostly obsolete technology at this time. Appropriate for the long term and reasonable to do during new construction in 1991, this proved to be an expensive add-on with long lead times and multiple trades involved.
New Aluminum & Glass Principal’s Office
We worked with the School to provide a better solution. The new Principal’s Office, shown to the left, has been constructed with a wood stud and drywall lower wall, dark bronze store front aluminum framing and an aluminum & glass door. It mimics the layout of the old office, but gives a more modern look. As a bonus, it was something that could be constructed quicker and at a savings of thousands of dollars. The office as pictured is nearly complete, lacking only the installation of a few of the window panes to wrap it up. We were pleased we could help with this solution.
Marshall County Crossroads
I attended the Marshall County Crossroads meeting today. Swan Lake Resort hosted the event. It appears the steering committee is making good progress and I commend Ginny Munroe and Kevin Overmyer for taking this on. It is a daunting job. The Stellar Community effort in Culver was difficult on a single community level, so I can see that upping the community count to 6, plus the county, has to increased the difficulty in a geometric progression.
I’m not sure if many of the new ideas generated today will be usable in the application since we’re getting down the the wire, but I am sure some of them can be melded into the existing targeted goals. It was a useful effort. Culling out some of the other, stand alone, good ideas can be added to the overall planning for the future. I would sincerely hope that some of the overarching organizations such as the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) and the Marshall County Economic Development Corp. (MCEDC) will include them in their planning and that the individual communities and the county will fold them into their individual strategic action plans. Possibly Marshall County Crossroads morphs into its own continuing entity to spearhead these things.
The planning and collaboration process was one of the more important “wins” to come from the Culver Stellar application. Keeping that supportive collaboration going can be like herding cats, but it’s worth the effort. I think Marshall County Crossroads is a good next step in the mutual support that has been fostered by MCEDC’s County Development for the Future program. We’re better when we can work on goals together.
Damore Amphitheater Completion
Ginny Munroe, Town Council President, making a dedication speech at the Ribbon Cutting for the Damore Amphitheater
July 12th Culver held a dedication ceremony and the inaugural concert at the Damore Amphitheater. This is a project that we completed earlier in June. This Spring was challenging, with our pre-construction meeting being held with snow on the ground, but despite that, we were able to complete the project with minimal delays. FH Deck and Landscaping did great work placing the stones and completing the landscape work. In house we completed wiring and assembly of the pergola structure. The site was designed by Mike Reese with Troyer Group.
Inaugural Concert at Damore Amphitheater
The cold start this year made it difficult to get the plants in place as all of nurseries were behind. The original design called for hydroseeding parts of the site, but again, they were behind so we ended up donating additional sod to the project. Then it turned hot just as everything was completed. It was a challenge going forward to keep things watered, but the except for a few brown patches of sod, everything looked good for the grand opening.
This was one of the projects from the 2016 Stellar Communities application that Culver was able to move forward without Stellar. This is a project that received funding from IHCDA and Marshall County Community Foundation. That made room for other things in the 2017 application. The separate funding of this project and the advancement of the Sand Hill Farm apartment project, both outside Stellar, contributed to our Stellar Designation in 2017.
Hopefully the Town will be able to start scheduling performances here and make the site a destination. We’re proud of our part in bringing this project to fruition.
Sand Hill Farm Drone Pictures
Aerial from Southwest
Les McFarland, Bourbon Town Council President, did us a solid Sunday, July 15th, and used his drone to take these (and a bunch of others) aerial pictures of Sand Hill Farm Apartments under construction. These are being used in the IHCDA application for the second phase – The Paddocks at Sand Hill Farm. This will be additional entry level housing. The application is supported by Culver’s Stellar Designation. It goes in July 30th and we’ll find out if we were successful in November.
Aerial from the Northwest
This is the kind of collaboration and connections that have been achieved due to Marshall County Economic Development Corp.’s (MCEDC) County Development for the Future meetings that brought Marshall County and all of our community leaders together to meet and discuss common goals. I would not have known Les to ask for his help without this connection. Les may or may not have helped Culver in the past before we met and shared our common goals. Now we’re embarking on Marshall County Crossroads – an effort to duplicate Culver’s Stellar success under the new Regional Stellar program. We should have an advantage as we have been collaborating between our communities for over five years.
Thanks Les! Your help is sincerely appreciated.
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MacKenzie Ledley - Executive Director, Pulaski County Public Library