Plan presented
Pennville council gets revitalization draft
PENNVILLE — The plan is in council’s hand.
Brent Mather of R&B Architects, Indianapolis, presented Pennville Town Council on Tuesday with the draft of its comprehensive plan that lays out community and economic goals in the short and long term.
Council members will now review the document and make any changes they deem necessary. The final plan will then be voted on at the Feb. 5 regular meeting.
It lays out goals for improvements in areas including streets, downtown, housing, infrastructure, recreation, economic development, tourism and quality of life. Those were developed from surveys and community meetings under Mather’s guidance.
One difference from some of the other area plans — Redkey completed one last year and Dunkirk and Portland are both nearing the end of the process — is that it encompasses the entire town rather than just the downtown area.
“We realized that downtown didn’t function without the residences immediately adjacent to it, without the parks, without the river,” said Mather of the town of about 700 residents. “At the size that you are … you were functioning as one community.
“We wanted to make sure that you had the best use of your resources.”
The plan focuses on community improvement and ways to build around the county-wide trails plan that was adopted last year.
One such project would be to make use of the Salamonie River, which runs along the southwest side of the town, as the take-out point for canoeing. (The put-in point would be in Portland.) The goal would then be to draw canoeing visitors to the downtown area to eat and shop.
The plan also put focus on the possible expansion of the library in order to offer additional learning opportunities for both children and adults. It calls for improving signs, lighting and sidewalks along Union Street (Indiana 1) and some of the surrounding area, and notes locations for possible housing development.
Mather said R&B looked at potential uses for the former Pennville Elementary School building, but noted that neither an adult education center nor a senior living center seem to be financially viable. He said the biggest asset is the gym, which could be used as a community center.
Also suggested in the plan is the formation of a tax increment financing (TIF) district, in order to capture new tax dollars for community improvement.
Funding will be key toward the possibility of completing any of the projects. Having the plan in place opens doors for grant funding, including the county-wide effort to seek the Stellar Communities designation from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
“Hopefully we can find certain key projects in each of our communities and how we can all tie together to turn in a successful application to bring that designation here, because we already know we’re stellar,” said Ami Huffman, the county’s director of community development. “It would just be nice to have the title.”
Also Tuesday, town council reminded residents that the Feb. 5 meeting will also include a public hearing on utility rates.
Council has proposed a 10-percent increase.
