Huntingburg Senior Citizens Center put on hold as money shifted to Market Street Park

The development of Market Street Park and the increased costs associated with its construction pushed the Huntingburg Common Council to make some budgetary decisions Tuesday night.

The council took several actions to pay for the park seen as a huge boon to the city’s economic and social vitality to accommodate the $1 million increase over the original estimate of about $2.9 million for its construction.

Along with agreeing to increase the original amount of economic income tax and tax increment finance funds for the project, the city also postponed the creation of a new senior activities center that was included in the Stellar Community plan.

As part of Stellar, the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) had originally dedicated $1.4 million to go to the Market Street Park project and $300,000 to go to the senior center.

But, according to Region 15 Executive Director Lisa Gehlhausen, the city could be eligible for a separate $500,000 grant through OCRA for the senior center after the completion of the park. With the prospect of a larger grant and the increased costs for the Market Street Park project, the council agreed — pursuant to OCRA approval — to use the full $1.7 million in Stellar funds from OCRA for Market Street Park.

In regards to local funding, the council voted to increase the amount coming from EDIT funds from $250,000 to $1 million.

The city currently has about $1,879,609 in its EDIT fund. With the million dollars for Market Street, the fund will be reduced to about $879,609 however, with the city’s current EDIT distribution of $43,000 monthly the council was confident the fund would be replenished fairly quickly. “It is, in my mind, a project that will create a great economic development environment,” Mayor Denny Spinner said.

The council agreed.

“It’s not going to put us into any kind of financial stress to use these funds,” Councilman Glen Kissling said before moving to approve the changes.

“I would say that this is the most visible Stellar project and if anything warrants a shifting of funds, this is it,” Councilman Jeff Bounds said.

With the costs associated with engineering, design and construction management, the total cost for the new park will be about $4.5 million of which $363,000 has already been paid.

The council also approved a contract with Jasper Lumber as the low bidder on the project at a total with all the options completed of $3.9 million. The company’s bid without any of the options included in the bid package was about $3.4 million, about $500,000 over the original $2.9 million. But, with the increased costs of coming back later to add these amenities and options to the park, the council agreed to finish it all now.

The increased construction costs associated with the park were also driven by market changes driven by the glut of construction work going on now. Additionally, since bids were estimated in 2016, there have been increases pushed by the prevailing wage act, or the Davis-Bacon wage scale, which added to costs.

In regards to the site preparation, there is some uncertainty of the soil conditions in some of the areas. With that, they designed the areas for walkways and driving surfaces for the worst case scenario. As construction progresses, there may be cost savings if the entire area does not have poor soil.

When the project is finished in 2018 though, the park will include all of the features originally designed into it rather than those additions being completed in phases through the park budget.

“There is a huge number of people that have been involved in this project from the beginning. They and others in the community have voiced their support for this,” Spinner said. “How can we say that we aren’t going to complete this when we have the money to do so?”

The council will consider the new funding ordinance after a public hearing during its next regular meeting on August 8 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

The funding change will likely push final approval from OCRA to August 31 and won’t impact the completion of the park in 2018.

According to the mayor, planning will continue on the senior center however, the application for the grant will come after the park project is underway. “This project (Market Street) will be done by June of 2018 and the goal is to continue to work on some of the preliminary work on the senior citizens center and be ready for applying for a $500,000 grant for it rather than the $300,000,” Spinner said.