Jasper to seek partnership with County to apply for $1.5 million in grants
The City of Jasper is seeking to team up with county government officials to potentially land $1.5 million for redeveloping the Courthouse Square.
Last week, Jasper’s Common Council and Dubois County Commissioners were informed of the plans to leverage funding from the recent allocation of local option income taxes (LOIT) that the state had held in reserve during the economic downturn several years ago.
Through Senate Bill 67, those LOIT withholdings are being released to the municipal and county units they were originally slated to benefit. Of the funds, 75 percent must be earmarked for road or bridge work and can be used for infrastructure to those roads like storm sewers and sidewalks.
The remaining funds can be placed in rainy day funds.
The City of Jasper is set to receive $1,666,554, of which about $1.2 million will be set into a special fund for road and street projects. The county will receive about $2.1 million.
Through a matching grant process created by House Bill 1001 passed by the General Assembly this year, government units can potentially double the impact of these LOIT funds for specific projects. The matching grants will be available for approved projects annually for three years, and the matching funds have to come from the SB 67 funds.
[quote style=”boxed”]About $184 million in grants from HB 1001 is available this year.[/quote]
According to Andy Seger, who serves on the Jasper Redevelopment Commission and is the president of the Economic Development Commission, to be considered, the city has to demonstrate a feasible plan is in place and submit an application between May 31 and July 3.
Currently, the engineering firm Rundell Ernstberger Associates of Indianapolis is completing an engineering plan for the downtown area based on the suggestions from the conceptual designs created by CityVisions and Gamble Associates finalized in 2013. Those concepts were added to the city’s master plan.
Those conceptual plans include ideas for expanded seating around the square as well as widened sidewalks with land- and street-scaping that would increased handicap accessibility and add storm water mitigation improvements. The goal being to create a destination area for residents and visitors through the updated aesthetics and addition of culture and arts.
[quote style=”boxed”]The Courthouse Square project encompasses the square and the streets and alleyways a block in each direction.[/quote]
With the looming July 3 deadline to have a viable application to the state, the city will be seeking to team up with the county to maximize the opportunity and benefit for the shared area.
“There is a pretty tight timeframe associated with the matching dollars from these grants,” Seger told the Jasper Common Council last Wednesday. “And it’s not something we want to let pass us by because as we have seen across these project, grants can be pretty critical components of a lot of the exciting stuff we have going on.”
The Jasper Common Council approved advertising the use of $1 million of the LOIT funds received to seek the matching grant from the state. Wednesday, the County Council will consider adding $500,000 to the grant application as well as an additional $500,000 of LOIT money to assist with the redevelopment.
With the LOIT funds from the county and matching grants from the state, up to $3.5 million could be allocated for the project at a local cost of $2 million from the recently released funds.
Councilman John Bell, who also serves as the president of the Jasper Redevelopment Commission, the city is seeking to partner with the county since the overarching benefits of redeveloping the heart of the county will impact it as well. “The Courthouse lies in the center of our county. It is the heart of our city and it gets the most traffic from county and federal government.,” he said. “It makes sense that we partner with them on this project.”
Bell added that the state has indicated the partnered project for the Square would be looked upon favorably in consideration for the matching grants.
Councilman Greg Schnarr pointed out the matching fund allocation will not impact the 2016 budget for the city.
The county commissioners were presented with the plan last Monday and were supportive in moving forward together to maximize the benefit of the grants. However, the county council is the fiscal body of the county and the final approval for the use of the county LOIT funds will have to come from them.
Mayor Terry Seitz and supporters of the project will meet with the Dubois County Council at their regular meeting Wednesday, May 25, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers of the Dubois County Courthouse Annex.
“We would welcome help in speaking to our county council members and commissioners,” Mayor Seitz told the council. “This is an optimal time for us to be partners. We really need to have your [council] help in working with our county officials.”
As part of the final steps in the process, the redevelopment commission will consider the option to pursue the grant at the June 6 meeting and the Jasper Common Council will have final approval on June 22.
