Brown County now has a seat at the table when it comes to deciding what projects could be funded with a possible $50 million regional grant.
The Brown County Commissioners were the last board to approve a resolution to partner in the Regional Opportunities Initiatives and Radius Indiana READI (Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative) regional effort.
The commissioners had a special meeting on June 28 to vote on committing Brown County to “move forward with ROI and Radius Indiana in the creation of a READI Regional Plan to submit to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.”
The resolution was approved unanimously to apply for funding as part of the 11-county Indiana Uplands Region.
On June 24, the Indiana Uplands region — of which Brown County has been a part since 2013 — and ROI pitched to a group of about 20 community and government leaders, highlighting the ways that the 11 counties in the Indiana Uplands are connected. A strategic plan for the area was created in 2014 with the input of all counties, including Brown.
Following that meeting, the Brown County Schools Board of Trustees, the Nashville Town Council and the county’s redevelopment commission also passed similar resolutions to partner with the Uplands region ahead of the July 1 deadline.
Commitments to regions have to be made by July 1; then, regions have until the end of August to sketch out which types of projects they might pursue with READI funding if they were to get it.
The Uplands region had contacted the Brown County Community Foundation to try to get Brown County on its READI application. Brown County and Nashville had received offers from at least three regional groups to join them to apply for up to $50 million per region through READI. Gov. Eric Holcomb introduced the READI program in May.
The READI fund of money was approved by the Indiana General Assembly this past session. The money will be used to “provide grants or loans to an eligible regional economic acceleration and development organizations.”
By providing $50 million to regional organizations the mission is to accelerate “efforts to attract and retain talent by working together to create high quality, vibrant and dynamic places that stand out from a crowded field of options,” the resolution approved by the commissioners and the other boards states.
To get READI funding, at least two contiguous counties must self-identify as a region and develop a plan identifying the region’s vision for its future, along with strategies and projects to achieve that vision. The state has a pool of $500 million available.
Counties or cities can only pick one READI application to join.
Before the June 24 meeting with ROI and other Indiana Uplands partners, county commissioner Diana Biddle had been in conversation with Morgan and Johnson counties about a different partnership focused on the “live-work-play” concept. She said Brown County factored into their trails plan.
Nashville Town Council President Jane Gore and Strategic Direction Adviser Dax Norton had been talking with Bartholomew, Jackson and Jennings counties about joining their READI application.
READI efforts are supposed to “make positive developments in quality of place and quality of life, quality of opportunity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and talent attraction and development,” according to grant information materials. Those could be physical projects, like building housing or infrastructure, or programs, like business support and training.
Other possible project focus areas could include increasing housing inventory, expanding childcare options and growing the school population, and building essential infrastructure to support those items, such as roads, water, sewer, broadband and jobs that pay a living wage.
A 1:1 match is required, up to $50 million. A match amount equal to the grant money must come from local public funding, and an amount three times the grant funding must come from private or philanthropic sources. Not every project must be matched in that way, but overall, that’s how the region’s pool of project funding should look.
It is not clear what would be required of Brown County financially in the future or how Brown County would benefit from applying for READI with Indiana Uplands, as no grant application or project plan has been written yet.
At the meeting on June 24 some of those in the room were cautious to pursue READI funding at all or with the Uplands region, but by the end of the discussion a poll was taken and nearly everyone in the room raised a hand to say that Brown County should make a go at it.
Representatives from the school district and the community foundation spoke about the importance of joining with ROI and the Uplands region. The groups had helped secure grant funding to support the schools, like a $150,000 grant which led to the creation of the Eagle Manufacturing program at the high school.
The group of county, town and nonprofit leaders at the June 24 meeting were informally tapped as the local steering committee that will start brainstorming potential READI projects. That group will next meet at noon Thursday, July 8 at the Brown County Community Foundation office.
