Tribune-Star - The Wabash River Regional Development Authority met Wednesday to discuss its disbursal of Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative grant money.
Those grants go toward local infrastructure and quality-of-life projects, and the RDA is now considering how it will approach applying for READI 2.0 funding.
Of the $20 million the RDA received from READI 1.0 funding, it has disbursed $3.2 million to projects. Four projects have been completed, such as West Terre Haute’s clinic and pharmacy and the thoroughly refurbished swimming pool in Sullivan.
Three others have received partial funds and two more will receive money imminently.
There were a total of 24 projects slated to use READI 1.0 money. Of that, 16 have been approved for compliance and will soon be able to commence spending. Three projects are pending approval and the remaining five have issues holding up their applications.
For example, the city of Clinton — one of the five still awaiting approval — plans to redirect the $237,000 it requested for the construction of a splash pad toward a project paving roads and sidewalks in a neighborhood on North Sixth Street in grave disrepair and in a flood zone.
Another project yet to completed the application process is a hotel in Sullivan.
Other projects that the Wabash River RDA is overseeing include developing additional amenities in downtown Terre Haute for tourists; a Diversity and Career Center for Ivy Tech’s School of Health Sciences; and a pilot program for homebuilders seeking to entice them to build homes in West Central Indiana and intended to result in an estimated 150 new homes.
Other money is going to Turn to the River, the Swope Art Museum, St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, the Terre Haute Children’s Museum and The Mill concert theater.
The Wabash River RDA was created in 2015, a product of the time when Mike Pence was governor.
“Pence and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation realized that for Indiana to be competitive against other states in attracting investment and growing the economy, it would require the population to grow,” explained Greg Goode, president of Wabash River RDA.
“In order for the population to grow, they had to attract individuals to relocate to Indiana,” he added. “In this day and age, many people are looking for quality-of-place type amenities that can be attractive to them to live, work and raise families.”
The Indiana Regional Cities Initiative required counties and communities to become eligible for funding by establishing RDAs.
Goode joined the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce and other high-profile partners in thinking, “Shame on us if we don’t try to pursue this.”
Initially, they reached out to Knox and Sullivan counties and found some partners to form a RDA with the Wabash River being the connector.
Over the past three years, Vermillion, Parke and Clay Counties have joined the Wabash River RDA.
“Not only do we want to inspire our children and grandchildren to stay, but we want to attract people here,” Goode said.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation launched READI four years ago to fulfill Pence’s goal of promoting strategic investments to help Indiana lure talent and economic growth.
The Wabash River RDA submitted $77 million worth of requests and received $20 million.
“We’ve made the most of that $20 million investment,” Goode said. “Our goal is to enhance the various communities within the region and grow the population here and help Indiana grow its population.”
In requesting READI 1.0 money, the Wabash River RDA highlighted the region’s strong educational history.
“We put a lot of our emphasis on the power on this cluster of excellence around higher education to enhance the workforce,” said Goode. “The forefront of our appeal to the IEDC was based on the students we attract.”
Improvements in the area have happened incrementally, Goode said.
“Like a farmer planting seed corn, we’re doing our work today to see the fruits of that labor down the road and that’s most fulfilling,” he said. “Our job is to keep reminding people that there’s momentum here. … When it happens incrementally, you have to keep making sure that everybody knows that it’s happening.”
READI 2.0, signed into law by Holcomb on May 4, will disburse another $500 million throughout the state.
READI 2.0 will have slightly different guidelines than READI 1.0, and Goode anticipates the Wabash River RDA will request more than $50 million this second around.
One change will be that members of the IEDC will be visiting the sundry areas applying for aid, rather than all the local representatives going to Indianapolis.
That pleases Goode, who embraces the opportunity to show the IEDC the community’s accomplishments and needs.
“The IEDC pointed out that a higher education presence is very appealing to them,” he said. “So let’s show you what we’ve been able to do with the existing investment and then talk about the future and what we’d like to continue to build on.”
Although it remains to be seen how much READI 2.0 funding the Wabash River RDA will be rewarded, Goode said his task has been extremely gratifying.
“At least for me, it has been one of the greatest blessings of my life to be able to work with public sector and private sector leaders on bettering our community,” he said. “Our future is very, very bright.”
