What could town do to support Maple Leaf growth?

The Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center is not technically in Nashville town limits, but the town’s redevelopment commission has begun talking about what it could do to aid in the economic growth it could bring.

Town redevelopment commission member Roger Kelso and Brown County Redevelopment Commission member Jim Schultz broached the subject last week. Kelso was asking fellow commission members to think about what other projects the town should be working on besides approving requests for new riverfront district liquor licenses as they arise.

Redevelopment commissions have much broader power than that, including establishing tax-increment financing districts and economic development areas, recommending tax abatements, building infrastructure through bonding and the collection of tax increment in TIF districts, and redeveloping blighted property.

When visitors come here, they don’t see a dividing line between what is Nashville and what is Brown County, said town redevelopment commission member Ray Mogdlin. “So, while the Maple Leaf will not be our baby, so to speak, we are going to be highly impacted,” he said. If guests don’t have a good experience because restaurants and shops aren’t open when they get out of a show, for instance — or if they do have a good experience — the town and county will be lumped together in their minds, he said.

“I think we ought to be proactive as to what we think is going to happen so we’re not reactive with short time frames and say, ‘We can’t do that,’” he said.

For instance, if 1,500 Maple Leaf guests decide they want to stay overnight in Brown County, “What happens?” Mogdlin asked.

“We don’t have that capacity now,” Schultz said, at least not during peak visitor times.

Kelso, whose background is in infrastructure development, wondered what the town could do to support the development of additional hotels if they are needed, such as better controlling the amount of rainwater that flows into the wastewater treatment plant when it doesn’t need to be treated.

If infrastructure planning can be done beforehand, the time it would take to develop new hotels or new restaurants could be cut down, Kelso said.

Planning is also important in regards to land use because the area around Nashville is hemmed in by hills and floodplain, Schultz said.

“A lot of people like to bring up the bad things,” Kelso said.

“I’m over here thinking, ‘Am I going to need to buy another tractor to plant another field? Because it looks like we’ve got some big cows coming in.’”

Other possible projects the group tossed out included putting a sidewalk along Snyder Road to help Maple Leaf guests get to Hard Truth Hills, The Seasons Lodge and vice-versa; and/or realigning the entrance to The Seasons with the Hawthorne Drive/State Road 46 stoplight to make it safer for drivers and pedestrians, then making a connection to Heimburger Lane. Nothing was decided on; those were just ideas.

Town commission members planned to bring other ideas of projects they could be working toward to their March 5 meeting. Town redevelopment commission President Dan Snow also agreed to attend county redevelopment commission meetings — just as Schultz, from the county, attends town’s — to improve their ability to work together.

Town gives approval to planned U.S. Bicycle Route

The Nashville Town Council has given its approval to a United States Bicycle Route coming through downtown.

Cyclist Jim Schroeder approached the council in January to let them know a route was planned to come through Brown County. Other U.S. Bicycle routes go through Indiana, but all of them completely bypassed Bloomington and Brown County, he said. It’s been his mission for the past three-and-a-half years to get those counties included. He hopes to finally get the route approved and in place in the next three to four months, he said.

The route will be “basically an interstate for bicyclists,” he said. It’ll use existing highways and roads, and in some areas, multi-use paths. Schroeder predicted that bicyclists would be inclined to stop in Nashville for a break and possibly stay overnight. When he did a ride in this area two years ago, a group stayed three nights at the Brown County Inn, he said.

The Brown County route will be about 30 miles long by itself, stretching from Lake Lemon to Christianburg Road.

In terms of traffic, “you won’t even see the impact, but the hotels and restaurant owners will,” Schroeder said.

He said bicyclists can use whatever roads they want to already, but he’s trying to get the blessing of every jurisdiction this route would pass through. The county commissioners approved it in December.

The council approved using State Road 135/Van Buren Street as the designated route through downtown, as there’s already a bike lane along that road. In response to traffic safety concerns, Schroeder assured them that cyclists using this national route were not likely to be “5-year-olds who just jumped on a bike. … They’re going to be riding 50 miles a day.”

Chief of Police Ben Seastrom said as long as this will be single riders or small groups of bicyclists coming through town at various times and not a big group on one weekend, “this won’t impact us at all.”

The council adopted the resolution 4-0 with member Alisha Gredy absent.

Town looking into funding for ‘green’ initiatives

The Nashville Town Council is starting to look into grant options to “make Brown County green.”

New town council member Nancy Crocker, a member of Keep Brown County Beautiful, asked the council in January if they could look for a planning grant for these kinds of initiatives. During her council campaign, Crocker told voters she’d like to “encourage businesses to use fewer disposable items and provide more recycling units for them. By making our town greener, we honor this amazing land we that we live on.”

At the previous council meeting, new council member Anna Hofstetter also had asked for permission to pursue a planning grant related to building a sidewalk along State Road 46 East to the McDonald’s area. Because the town can only have a limited number of planning grants open at one time, Crocker’s green initiative may have to wait until the sidewalk planning grant is closed; however, the council still voted 4-0 to approve looking into it.

The town employs ARa as its grant writer; that company will explore what grants are available.

More volunteers wanted for Main Street Committee

Volunteers interested in decorating downtown Nashville for Christmas, organizing community events downtown, planning beautification projects and related ideas are welcome to apply to be on the Main Street Committee.

Currently and for the past several years, the committee’s main focus has been on making Christmas decorations and putting them up. However, 10 or so years ago, the Main Street Committee helped spearhead other visible projects downtown including installing the town clock, new sidewalks and streetlights, and redoing the storm drainage system.

Committee leader Brenda Young, the town clerk-treasurer, said it’s her goal this year to get more members on the committee and start planning more projects. Grant money is available to Indiana Main Street Communities, she said.

The group has never had enough members to break off into specialized committees, but that’s what she’d like to see. Committee members do not have to be in-town residents of Nashville, she said.

For more information, inquire at Town Hall, 200 Commercial St., or call 812-988-7064.