Council commits money, service to play space
The Nashville Town Council has committed to donating up to $50,000 cash and $25,000 in in-kind services toward the Village Green “play space” project.
The match money and service donation is needed for the town to apply for a $50,000 Place Based Investment Fund grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. The application is due in early April.
Town leaders don’t believe they’ll actually have to spend that much — which they could get from food and beverage tax or arts and entertainment funds — because of the public support they’ve seen so far for the project.
Several groups have shown interest in donating, said Town Manager/Economic Development Director Scott Rudd.
After getting the council’s unanimous commitment, Brown County Community Foundation CEO Larry Pejeau left the meeting to go “work the phones” for donations.
New festival may be coming this September
Beard-measuring, pig-calling, pie-eating and folks dressed up like pioneers: Those are a few of the activities the Nashville Main Street Committee, Brown County Historical Society, Pioneer Women and others are talking about having at a new festival downtown this fall.
Heritage Days would incorporate the existing Old Settlers Reunion in September. Nashville Main Street Committee Chair Brenda Young said the new festival is one of the committee’s top goals in its three-year plan.
It would take place around the History Center and Pioneer Village.
No date has been set for the festival. The Main Street Committee will continue to discuss it; the next meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 4 at Town Hall.
Fiber Internet to be extended to town government
Town of Nashville government buildings are one step closer to getting fiber-optic Internet — and then, so could their neighbors.
Town Manager/Economic Development Director Scott Rudd told the town council last week that switching their service from AT&T to Smithville Communications could save the town nearly $6,000 per year, and quadruple the town government’s Internet speed.
He gave credit to administrative assistant Mary Beth Fisher for doing the research to find the savings.
No date has been set for the installation, which will extend a fiber-optic Internet line from the area of the Brown County Career Resource Center on East Main Street to Town Hall.
Once it’s hooked up, it would be easier for all the businesses on Commercial Street and neighbors on Artist Drive to connect to fiber, too, Rudd said.
The town is also working on getting a line extended from the Hawthorne Hills senior apartments building site on Hawthorne Drive to the Nashville Police station at the end of that road. That could make it easier for other businesses on Hawthorne and on Willow Street to hook on, too, Rudd said.
