City gets grant for Safe Routes

Local groups combined to seek four grants for travel safety projects.
They were awarded three of them.
Ami Huffman, director of community development, reported at Tuesday’s Jay County Development Corporation meeting that Portland has received a $281,800 grant for the Safe Routes to School program. Dunkirk and Jay County also received grants for road-related projects.
Also Tuesday, JCDC learned about the possibility creating an industrial training center in Portland and got an update about the Bluff Point Wind Farm project.
Huffman told the JCDC board of directors the grant for Safe Routes to School will pay for a sidewalk and curbing along Middle and High streets from Votaw Street (Ind. 67) to Judge Haynes Elementary School. It’s the first step in an ongoing plan to create safe routes for children to walk to schools, Jay County Public Library, Jay Community Center and other facilities.
“We’re working on our plan right now for how we want the Safe Routes system to work in Portland,” said Huffman. “But the obviously first leg of it was that. So … we went ahead and applied.”
Three meetings are scheduled Monday as the Safe Routes planning continues. Community members will meet at 3 p.m. at Community Resource Center in Portland, followed by school officials, parent-teacher organizations and parents at 4:30 p.m. The Jay County Trails group will meet at 6 p.m. at John Jay Center for Learning.
The grants to Dunkirk and Jay County will pay for road and street sign replacements.
The only grant that was not approved was a request from Dunkirk for money to replace streetlights, but Huffman said the city still has other options and plans to apply for another grant.
Bill Bradley, JCDC’s executive director, reported there are talks involving Jay, Adams, Blackford, Wells and Randolph counties about the possibility of creating an industrial training center in conjunction with John Jay Center for Learning. It’s part of the state’s renewed focus on vocational education.
“I think it’s a very positive thing,” Bradley said. “Vocational education is something that our governor right now is pushing big time.”
John Jay will also begin offering classes through Purdue University. The organization currently partners with Ivy Tech, Jay Schools, and Indiana Wesleyan University.
Bob Lyons, who has been involved with the Bluff Point project since its inception, told the board developer NextEra Energy is in the process of re-leasing property for the planned wind farm in southern Jay and northern Randolph counties. He said NextEra representatives have told him they are still behind the project, which calls for 70 wind turbines and a total investment of $240 million, and hope to break ground in 2015.
In other business:
•Jay County Commissioner Jim Zimmerman and Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman praised the worked the county highway and city street department have done to clear roads this winter. Geesaman noted the city has used 250 tons of salt thus far.
•Bradley gave updates that a fiber optic line will be installed at Redkey Industrial Park with Bell Aquaculture, Redkey Economic Development Corporation and Community Fiber Solutions teaming on the project; work continues on redesigning the JCDC web site; he is working on an update of bylaws for JCDC and the other development corporations in the county; Jay County is now officially part of the Fort Wayne Foreign Trade Zone; the corporation is nearing a deal to sell the former GFT Corporation building in Pennville to a Texas-based company; the City of Portland granted Fort Recovery Industries another tax abatement and the company plans to have 40 total employees by year end; a buyer is interested in purchasing 11 acres of the former Jay Products property; and the IOM Grain expansion is expected to be completed by the spring.
•Huffman told the board bidding has opened for a new Pennville firetruck, for which the town received a state grant. Bids are due by March 7 and will be opened March 11.
Dunkirk will hold a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at West Jay Community Center to look at its 2009 downtown revitalization plan. Those in attendance will review the progress made thus far and discuss priorities for the future.
•Dean Sanders, executive director of Jay County Chamber of Commerce, gave a reminder that the group’s annual meeting is scheduled for Saturday at Bearcreek Farms. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and dinner will be at 7 p.m. followed by an awards ceremony.[[In-content Ad]]