Brown County has opportunities to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding from the Lilly Foundation to use on three community projects.
About 80 people showed up at the Brown County Playhouse Jan. 23 to help figure out what those projects might be, and to help to steer an overall strategic plan for the county.
Brown County has these project grant opportunities through the Regional Opportunities Initiative’s Ready Communities Initiative, a Lilly-funded effort to improve life in an 11-county region which includes Brown County.
These are to be projects which will “amplify the great things about your county and provide an opportunity for other people to join and enjoy those with you,” said Lauren Travis, project manager for ROI.
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The hired planners aiding in this grant effort will pull together their notes from last week’s listening session, an online survey which concluded last week, a housing survey done in December, past plans and other data, and share that with Brown County Community Foundation CEO Maddison Miller by the end of this week.
That information will inform a Quality of Place and Workforce Attraction Plan. The plan will be posted to the Brown County Community Foundation’s website and shared with the newspaper around the first week of February, Miller said.
In the process, the planners also will also prioritize projects that Brown County should pursue in three areas:
aesthetics and beautification — such as public art, place branding, environmental education, park enhancements and streetscapes;
connectivity and infrastructure development — such as housing, high-speed internet, bike and walking paths, trail enhancements and other transit needs; and
community cohesion and support — such as childcare, healthcare, workforce training, countywide communications, and developing a “retirement network.”
Those were just examples of possible projects; other ideas could come up.
Brown County has the opportunity to apply for three rounds of grant funding to implement projects, up to $250,000 each round.
In March, Miller plans to submit the first grant request for one project.
The community will know what that target project is before the application goes in, she said.
“We’re trying to decide, what do we need here in Brown County to sustain ourselves? What sort of amenities and attributes do we need in Brown County to make it a really awesome place to live, work and play, and what can we do to entice new employers and new employees to move to Brown County?” Miller told the Playhouse crowd.
“We want this process to be community-driven. It’s not the community foundation telling you guys what you want and what you need,” Miller said. “It’s not the RDC (Brown County Redevelopment Commission), it’s not ROI telling you what you need. It’s a grassroots initiative to figure out what we as a community need and just come together to build a strategic plan for the future.”
Parallel paths
The community foundation planning process and the Lilly grant opportunities come at the same time the Brown County Redevelopment Commission is working on an economic strategic plan. The commission was awarded a $50,000 grant from the state last year for that purpose.
The community foundation and the redevelopment commission combined forces at this Playhouse event. The groups will be creating two plans; however, redevelopment consultant Dustin Lester and Miller said their work is meant to complement each other.
“I see the Quality of Place and Workforce Attraction plan as a living document that will eventually incorporate all the complimentary planning efforts that are currently underway, including the RDC’s economic plan,” Miller said. The plans just can’t be merged right now because they are independent opportunities on different timelines, she said.
The county’s economic strategic plan is envisioned to contain suggestions that would diversify the county’s economic base beyond one or two industries, develop the workforce to fill those jobs, add new housing in a wide range of styles and prices, and build needed infrastructure. It will complement the natural and cultural assets of the county, Lester emphasized.
The plan will not just be a wish list, but will include steps, such as possible funding sources, to make those things happen, he told the commission late last year.
The redevelopment commission conducted two meetings in each township last fall to start gathering feedback about what local people needed to continue living here.
At last week’s presentation, audience members also were asked to choose, on paper ballots, which were the top opportunities, challenges and infrastructure needs in the county. On another display board, they were asked to place colored dots on a map where they thought water, sewer, transportation and internet were needed.
In the meantime, Lester has been gathering data about the county’s strongest existing industries, looking at whether there are opportunities to expand those, complement those, or look for new opportunities within them.
In addition to tourism, the county’s top industries include beverage manufacturing, home care nursing, residential building and maintenance services, and state government, likely because of the state park, he said.
Group visions
From listening to local people and poring over past studies, the community foundation’s consultants, Jamie Medlock and Parry Carter, already had identified some possible focus areas for Brown County.
They grouped them under “quality of place,” workforce development and community amenities. The audience broke into three groups for about 45 minutes to discuss opportunities and challenges in those categories.
For instance, under “quality of place,” Medlock wasn’t sure how many people outside this region know about Brown County’s culture and everything it offers. Residents who discussed the topic in a small group said they also weren’t sure how many Brown Countians understand the history and culture here, either. One hurdle could be that so many are commuters who have limited time to explore and get involved in their home community, said resident Vivian Wolff.
Connectivity to the community is especially important for Brown County youth, said town council member Nancy Crocker, a substitute teacher. Group members talked about wanting to see opportunities for students to learn from established artists and to job-shadow in local businesses.
The planners also heard that local people don’t know what is going on in their own community in order to participate. They believe there could be a need to develop a comprehensive community calendar or to improve existing calendars.
Residents also talked about improving trail connectivity, for walkers, bikers, horseback riders and waterway users. Resident Cliff Cressey said he loves to walk into Nashville from his apartment in the Willow Manor area, but the Salt Creek Trail isn’t always usable due to flooding. He’d like to see a sidewalk added along State Road 46. With the Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center coming, he believes that visible, walkable paths are a great need.
Other residents talked about adding walking paths in places outside Nashville, like Helmsburg and Bean Blossom, and about trying to clean up Salt Creek so that it can be used more for recreation.
Just in the past couple months, the Indiana Department of Transportation has made millions of dollars in funding available for counties to work on trails, Medlock said. How to go after other funding opportunities like that will be part of this plan, she said.
The amenities group highlighted a big need for childcare options — not just for infants, but for school-aged children, too, when they’re not in school because of snow days or breaks. Brown County ranks near the bottom in this 11-county region for certified child care availability, Carter said.
Housing was another often-mentioned need, he said. A lot of factors go into why housing options seem to be in short supply, but a big one is because so much Brown County land is owned by the state and federal governments.
Other amenity ideas included creating a “retirement network” of people who want to get involved in the community; better connecting local groups to share information; and expanding access to sewage treatment, broadband internet and health care.
The workforce development and attraction group also mentioned broadband, as well as other types of connectivity. They suggested tying in the traditional arts community more closely with the schools; offering opportunities in culinary arts and local food; focusing on STEAM education, adding the arts and humanities into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math); and getting more trade programs and vocational opportunities for local youth.
Sixty-five percent of today’s elementary through high school students will have careers in fields that don’t yet exist, Carter said.
“The schools here, they have science labs, robotic clubs. Inserting the humanities into these systems, I think, will go a long way in instilling that Brown County culture in the youth … so we have well-rounded students that have just a general awareness of what’s available in Brown County and beyond,” he said.
