JCDC waiting on two grants

Jay County Development Corporation is still waiting for contracts from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs related to two grants totaling nearly $1 million.
OCRA announced Sept. 4 that Jay Community Center would receive $542,197 to develop a new senior center addition and Redkey would receive $445,000 to build a new fire station.
Both grants would be from the Public Facilities Program, which typically limits funding to $400,000.
In the case of both Jay County grants, OCRA approved the full project cost instead of just $400,000. As a result, community developer Ami Huffman told the JCDC board Wednesday, there’s some confusion about the local match, whether local matching funds will be necessary and how much might be required.
“Any time we should be getting those contracts,” said Huffman. The architect for both projects was to be in Jay County today to begin work on design details.
Huffman said she expects both projects to be put out for bids in January or February, with construction starting in the spring.
“They’re both good projects,” she said.
Huffman also told the board a third house in Dunkirk had been razed as part of the blight elimination project. A total of nine houses are to be demolished, the land cleared and the property first made available to adjoining property owners. Paperwork on the project “has been crazy,” Huffman said, with claims having to be submitted multiple times before payment has been received.

Another Dunkirk project will be seeking support in November when Huffman re-files an application with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority for tax credits linked to the proposed Crown Crossing Senior Housing development on Main Street.
Dunkirk and Buckeye Community Hope Foundation Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, have partnered on that project and submitted a similar application last year. Huffman said last year’s application fell just three points short of approval during the grant review process.
“We’re trying to get every point we can,” she said.
To that end, the board approved a resolution making Ian Maute of Buckeye Community Hope Foundation an honorary, non-voting member of JCDC’s board. While a symbolic gesture, it’s expected that the action could add as many as four more points in the grant review process.
JCDC executive director Bill Bradley told the board that the 20/20 Vision project is going to undergo a mid-course review with the help of Ball State University. A 10-year plan was developed by 20/20, and the county is now about five years into implementation.
“Much has changed in the last five years,” said Bradley.
Former JCDC executive director Richard Heupel, now director of economic and community development with BSU’s Building Better Communities program, will help with the plan update process that will take place early next year. Funding for the review will come from The Portland Foundation.
In other business, the board:
•Approved revisions in the JCDC bylaws. Changes include setting the number of directors at 25, clarifying a quorum as 13 or more and adding flexibility to the date of the annual meeting.
•Heard Bradley report that his job retention visits to local industries are nearly complete for the year.
“By and large most of our companies are staying even if not growing,” he said. “Very positive, the comments we’re getting.”
•Learned that efforts to become a WorkReady community are ongoing. Training for that project will be done locally.
•Heard Bradley report that the Jay County Promise 529 effort has now seen about 71 percent of the county’s kindergarten through grade three students establish 529 higher education savings accounts.
“That is a great number,” he said. “It was a tremendous effort on the part of everybody.”