The Culver Town Council and members of the Stellar Communities Steering Committee are gearing up for another year of preparation.
Culver was named a finalist in the small population category in the state’s Stellar Communities program. They were eventually bested by Corydon. Stellar Communities helps with planning and future grant applications by designating a community worthy of extensive state investment.
During Monday night’s work session meeting, the two groups spit-balled ideas for how to improve upon 2016’s application for 2017. Town Council President Ginny Bess Munroe says Culver’s collaboration stood out.
“They seemed to be positive on the collaboration aspects and somewhat intrigued too, like: hey, this is kind of cool that you took us over to both of these schools. They seemed to be up on that,” says Munroe.
Culver underwent an exhaustive planning, funding, and application process before being named a finalist. The community has identified key projects that they hope the state can help them complete.
Among the challenges Culver faced was connecting the projects to each other. The state also provided some constructive criticism that the community could have better incorporated arts and history into the overall plan.
Brainstorming started with including more festivals, getting help from local school children, and receiving financial help from the Marshall County Community Foundation.
Town Manager Jonathan Leist says they’re already facing deadlines early next year.
“I think we want maybe a top five or six project list to be ready for that March 1st deadline,” says Leist. “I don’t know, the top three, I feel like were pretty well received when we talked about housing, the trail, and the beach lodge. I don’t want to skew anyone’s voting, but I feel like those will be around next year.”
No one in the re-hash of 2016’s Stellar Communities’ application wanted to take a year off before reapplying in 2017.
The ideas will be processed over the coming weeks with work expected to start in the coming months in preparation. Among the key challenges for Culver will be showing year-over-year progress on the projects listed in this year’s application.
