Prepping projects

The Redkey fire station and Jay Community Center projects took drastically different paths to earning financial support. But as 2016 approaches, they are in virtually the same stage of the planning process.
Final specifications are being put together for both a new fire station in Redkey and the addition of a senior citizens’ wing at the community center, with bidding planned for late January. Both projects, which are targeted to begin construction in the spring and be complete in 2016, earned $400,000 grants through Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ Public Facilities Program.
For Redkey, the path to the grant was arduous.
The town had applied for the OCRA funding four times prior to this year. And discussions about how to raise money to replace its century-old fire station on High Street began years earlier.
“When … Jay County community developer Ami Huffman ... sent me a text message that we were approved for the grant, I thought she was joking,” said Redkey fire chief Randy Young. “You just can’t believe the feeling that all of us had.”
The grant will pay for about 90 percent of the estimated $445,000 project, with the rest to come from Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) funds.
Jay Community Center’s state funding will account for 74 percent of the funding needed for construction costs a planned $542,197 senior center to the east of the current facility. Huffman, who also sits on the JCC board, had warned those involved that it was unlikely the grant application would be approved on the first attempt.
“The whole board was kind of just waiting to see what OCRA said. We’re pretty excited it came through the first time,” said JCC executive director Kyle Cook. “That means we obviously were hitting a need that they were interested in.”
The remainder of the senior center’s construction funding will come from cash reserves, but, according to the organization’s guidelines, those dollars must be replaced.
JCC’s fundraising efforts with a goal of raising $275,000 — with equipment, furnishings and exterior improvements, the total project is expected to cost $675,000 — are beginning today.
The plan is to solicit large donors over the next few weeks followed by a broader campaign in January. Cook also plans to apply for a grant from The Portland Foundation.
Among the opportunities for larger donors are naming rights, ranging from $10,000 for a restroom up to $100,000 for the exercise rooms.
The facility will include three exercise rooms, which will serve as multi-purpose areas and can be opened to form one large space totaling nearly 2,000 square feet.
The 4,500 square foot facility will also have a social area with a coffee bar, restrooms, storage, a lobby and vestibule, with an entrance on the north side as well as a connection to the current facility.
“I think it’s time for the seniors to have their space and to have their area,” said Huffman. “They’re the fastest-growing population by far at the community center. So for them to have their own and be able to grow their social and wellness aspects of life is pretty huge.”
The new facility will provide space for senior citizen activities that are fast-growing, but limited because of other programming at the community center.
Currently, most senior activities are confined to about four hours in the morning each day. That’s because children take over the facility in the afternoon for boys and girls clubs as well as basketball practices. Summer day camp also limits the area available to seniors.
Based on the grant guidelines, the addition will be strictly for senior use for at least 10 years.
“We want some dedicated space for seniors,” said Cook. “The program has doubled in the last three years.
“Senior programming right now is only in the mornings, mainly from 8 to noon. With that building … we can go throughout the day.”
The fire station has long been a need for Redkey’s volunteer department.
Designed to house horses and the equipment in the early 1900s, it does not provide sufficient space for a modern fire department. Redkey’s trucks barely fit in the fire station, leaving mere inches between the vehicles and both the back wall and garage door.
There are also no drains, leaving firefighters to drain hoses in the streets.
“Watching them struggle year after year to function in their firehouse … every single winter these hoses freeze in the street,” said Huffman. “They have to be out there in the middle of the night draining them and rolling them back up. … To hear that they got awarded and can now have someplace they can actually function out of, park their trucks in, fit their trucks in without having to work so hard to be a volunteer is great. It’s so good for them.”
The new fire station, a metal shell building to be built where Ash, Railroad and High streets meet, will have a series of truck bays facing to the south. The former town hall, which currently stands on the site, will be torn down, with council meetings to be moved to the cabin at Redkey Park.
There will also be a radio room, chief’s office, storage area and restrooms.
The building has been scaled back to mostly bare bones, with the firefighters planning to raise money and handle many projects, such as shelving for the storage room, on their own.
Seeing those involved stick together and constantly work to improve the grant application over a five-year period was a major victory for the town, council president Kyle Champ said.
“It felt very rewarding,” he said. “There’s a lot of different people that worked together on this. … Whenever you have … that team that when you do fail you just buck back up and you do what it takes to put a better proposal in. … it’s really neat to see that in a small town, when everybody has that vision for the common good of the people.”