Returning grant funds

The money is going back. 

Portland City Council voted Monday to repay $52,649.83 in unused grant money to Jay County Solid Waste Management District, which officially requested the funds be returned last month. 

Council members also heard an overview of the downtown revitalization plan that has been in the works for nine months. 

For the past decade, the waste management district has given the city a yearly grant to help pay for curbside recycling. But the city has not needed to use the funds since 2013, as it charged residents the full price for the cost of curbside pickup. 

The waste management district voted not to give the city the grant this year while enacting cost-saving measures in August. Portland Board of Works ended curbside recycling in October to avoid raising costs for Portland residents, and in November the waste management district voted to ask for the unused grant funds back. 

District vice president Chuck Huffman formally requested the funds be returned at council’s last meeting on Feb. 18. However, as three council members were not in attendance, the others elected to table the matter. (Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman and council member Bill Gibson also sit on the management district’s board and voted to ask the city to return the money in November.) 

Voting on the issue was not on council’s agenda for Monday, but Geesaman asked if it would like to settle the matter. 

“I’d like to make a motion that we return the money,” council member Janet Powers responded. “I mean, we’ve kicked it around since September, they’ve made the request and that way we’re in good faith giving it back and if we need to ask for it again, we can.” 

Don Gillespie seconded the motion, but the vote was paused for a brief period of discussion. City attorney Bill Hinkle explained that he examined meeting minutes from 2008 when the city requested the money from the solid waste management district. However, there was no mention that year or any subsequent years of any formal agreement between the city and the district spelling out the terms of the grants and whether unused money needed to be returned. 

Judy Hedges, Michele Brewster, Kent McClung, Powers and Gillespie voted to refund the money. Judy Aker voted against, and Gibson abstained. Both Aker and Gibson spoke against returning the money at the Feb. 18 meeting. 

Also on Monday, council heard an overview of the comprehensive revitalization plan for downtown Portland, presented by Brent Mather of R&B Architects. 

The plan is a vital part of Jay County’s regional application for the Stellar Communities designation through Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. Dunkirk, Redkey and Pennville have all created or updated their downtown plans in the past year as well. 

“We can be part of not only making downtown Portland great but making our other communities great as well and continuing that tradition in Jay County,” community developer Ami Huffman said. “Building off of each other’s strengths and lifting each other’s weaknesses.”  

Mather pointed out several of the city’s assets. It has a strong sense of community, not just in the city but throughout the county. There is a large population of younger people, a well-known school mascot and good traffic flow in downtown. But some of its weaknesses are that chain retail shops have made it difficult for smaller stores to survive, and there isn’t a cohesive brand for the downtown area. Additionally, there aren’t many events going on downtown in the evenings.

After conducting a gap analysis, Mather determined there is the potential for restaurants, grocery stores, new car dealerships, general merchandise stores and gas stations to perform well in the downtown area. 

“You’re spending less money in your community by a large margin,” Mather said. “Which means you’re going somewhere else. … So it’s not benefiting your local community specifically.” 

The plan includes four suggestions for projects the city should tackle to improve its downtown to attract more businesses and people to the area: 

1)   Fixing up endangered buildings. Mather identified four properties in downtown Portland that are in disrepair. There could be grant money from the state available to  help in many cases, and it would help beautify the city. 

2)   Redesigning Main Street to better utilize it for outdoor activities. Because it has less traffic than Meridian Street but is still in a central location, Main Street could be closed off for special events such as festivals or farmer’s markets, Mather said. 

3)   Adjusting traffic on Meridian Street to create a “completed street” that is hospitable to not only car and semi traffic, but pedestrians and bicyclists as well. Reducing the street from four lanes to two would not reduce traffic, Mather said, and would give the city the chance to increase parking and create safer sidewalks. The road would need to have well-timed traffic lights and adequate turning lanes for semi trucks. 

4)   Creating a downtown gateway. According to surveys, many people are confused about where downtown Portland actually begins at its north end. Mather suggested designating the intersection of Meridian and North streets and constructing something to welcome people downtown. 

Council will be asked to ratify the plan at its next meeting March 18.

“It doesn’t hold you to having to do anything or everything, and it doesn’t mean that as we start down the path things won’t twist and turn as we get into each thing,” Huffman said. “It just means we agree this is the direction we’re all going to move together.” 

In other business, council: 

•Discussed the future of the brick alley that runs between Community Resource Center and Sharlette’s Fudgery and behind HoosierBoy Smokehouse and Brew. HoosierBoy needs to replace two utility lines that run directly underneath the alley. Huffman asked Portland’s redevelopment commission support a project to preserve the alley and potentially close it to traffic to create a pedestrian space. 

“There’s about 200 employees within a few blocks of that alley, that a lot of them go to the different parks and sit in their car at lunch,” Huffman said. 

However, Aker said she had been approached by several business owners who have expressed concern about the plan, pointing out that they frequently use the back entrances.  

No final decision has been made.  

•Heard that Portland Board of Works will be opening new bids for the Sheller-Globe south building on Thursday. The process was restarted after concerns about the bidding process. Hedges asked whether John Goodhew, whose bid had originally been selected in January, had removed the items he was storing there. Geesaman said he was still working on the issue. 

“That would be considered trespassing at this point,” Hedges said. “So we need to get on that because if something happens, we are liable.” 

•Paid claims of $965,308.18.

•Agreed to close Morton Street on Aug. 16 for the 54th annual Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Show. 

•Heard from Geesaman that there will be an economic development income tax (EDIT) advisory committee meeting at 5 p.m. March 18, prior to the city council meeting.