Marshall County’s communities are putting proposals together for the state’s new regional development initiative. The READI program lets regions of counties, cities, and towns apply for up to $50 million for quality of place and talent attraction.
The Town of Bremen hopes the grant funding will jumpstart the development of a new east side industrial park, according to Director of Operations Trend Weldy. “The business owner that bought it, he wants to build one. He’s got another guy interested in building one,” Weldy explains. “Economic development is part of that, and so that would be the number-one thing that we’re looking at. And then at the park, we’re looking at pickleball courts and a couple different other things, as well.”
Park improvements are also on Culver’s wish list. Culver is seeking funds for its multi-use/basketball court. That would involve a new surface with line boundaries for basketball, pickleball, shuffleboard, and hopscotch. The town tried unsuccessfully to get an AARP grant for the project, but Town Manager Ginny Bess Munroe says that means a lot of the work has already been done.
“That’s one we feel like it’s already a shovel-ready project,” she told the town council last week. “This would give us a little extra grant money versus us paying out of pocket if we move forward with that project.”
Munroe added that some proposed county-wide READI projects include the Blue Zones efforts and a skills center. Meanwhile, the Marshall County Parks and Recreation Board plans to seek funding to rehabilitate the historic West Township Trustee Cabin and install a wheelchair-accessible trail at the Memorial Forest.
Plymouth City Attorney Sean Surrisi says READI is kind of like Regional Cities 2.0. Local communities would apply through South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership, the same group that oversaw the successful Regional Cities application in 2015. “The fact that we already have been planning and have a region already formed, we have a good chance of our region being successful and winning those $50 million,” Surrisi told the city council last week. “There’s other regions that are just trying to organize right now, and that’s a very difficult thing.”
READI requires a very quick timeline. Regional development plans are due to the state by the end of August. The list of funding recipients could be finalized by the end of the year.
