Grants total nearly $1 million

Indiana’s Office of Community and Rural Affairs Friday announced a pair of grants totaling nearly $1 million that will construct a new fire station in Redkey and build a senior center addition to the Jay Community Center in Portland.
Jay Community Center will receive a grant of $542,197 through the Public Facilities Program to add the proposed senior center, and the town of Redkey will receive a grant of $445,000 to build a fire station that will replace the current 110-year-old facility.
Local officials were giddy Friday afternoon upon getting word from OCRA.
“It’s amazing,” said Redkey Town Council president Kyle Champ. “What a huge benefit to the town.”
Jay County Community Developer Ami Huffman, who wrote both grant proposals, was particularly surprised by the size of the grant awards and that the community center grant was awarded on its first application.
“That’s unheard of,” she said.
Typically such grants top out at $400,000. OCRA’s official announcement Friday afternoon put both local projects well over that amount.
The grants are among $4.7 million in funding being provided to 14 Indiana communities through the Public Facilities Program. Funding comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program, which is administered in Indiana by OCRA.
“The establishment and continued maintenance of public facilities and historic buildings is vital to the identity of an area, but also to the preservation of the culture of the entire state,” said OCRA executive director Bill Konyha in a prepared statement.
“I’m excited,” said Jay Community Center board president John Boggs. “I can’t wait to get going.”
The Redkey fire station grant was on its third or fourth submission, Huffman said.
Redkey’s current firehouse is not only outdated, it’s also too small.
“We had to buy special trucks to fit it,” said Champ.
The new fire station will have a 3,400-square-foot bay for fire trucks, along with 2,300 square feet for training space, an office, and restrooms. Plans call for the new facility to be constructed on the site of the former Redkey High School.
The senior center addition on the east side of the current building would involve 5,000 square feet of space to provide two exercise rooms, along with a social area, and a set of restrooms.
State legislators Travis Holdman and Greg Beumer both issued statements applauding the OCRA decision.
“When everybody has a goal and works together,” said Redkey’s Champ, “as long as you keep pushing, good things will eventually happen.”