Soon, Brown Countians will be invited to come together and talk about a subject they likely haven’t thought about in years: the Stellar Communities program.
Nashville-Brown County unsuccessfully tried for a Stellar Communities designation from the state in 2014.
At the time, being named “Stellar” would have given the town and county access to a pool of millions of dollars in funding for projects for about a five-year period, supplemented by local money. Only Stellar Communities designees can apply for that pool of state and federal funding.
Since 2011, 16 Indiana communities have been awarded Stellar designations.
Nashville-Brown County was a Stellar finalist in 2014, but it was not one of the two winners that year.
Nashville Redevelopment Commission adviser Ed Curtin has been prompting town leaders to think about partnering with Brown County again and submitting another Stellar application. The topic first came up in the April meeting of the Nashville Redevelopment Commission and again at the next meeting in June.
Curtin is scheduled to give a presentation on Stellar to the Nashville Town Council this Thursday night, June 20. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
Since 2014, the rules for the program have changed a couple times. Before, towns and cities were able to apply on their own; now, applicants are required to partner with another community to form a regional partnership. When Nashville and Brown County applied together in 2014, it was unusual to see partnerships between the communities that applied.
The program has become “more attractive” than it was, Curtin said. He was an adviser to one of the communities, Huntingburg, which won in 2014.
In the past, the state Stellar committee had named six communities as finalists and two as Stellar designees, he said. Now, they’re naming four communities as finalists and one as the designee per year, and that one designee gets access to more money than before, he said.
According to a Stellar Communities Frequently Asked Questions document for 2019, the funding pool now includes:
- access to about $1.6 million in tax credits and $1.4 million in loans or grants for projects involving housing;
- $4 million for projects involving transportation;
- $8 million from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) which could have a variety of uses;
- $50,000 in grants for “placemaking” and planning projects;
- $75,000 for projects involving health and wellness; and
- an unspecified amount of possible money for historic renovation projects.
That comes to a total of about $15.1 million in funding; however, a designated Stellar Community is not guaranteed to receive the maximum amount available, the FAQ document says.
The document also says that additional funding sources may be available.
Curtin mentioned access to up to $4 million in low-interest loans from the Indiana Bond Bank, which aren’t listed on the FAQ document.
In addition, the $1.6 million in tax credits available to a developer of affordable housing is renewable every year, often for 10 years, so the value of that benefit could be counted at $16 million instead of $1.6 million. Sixteen million was the figure Curtin was using in his presentation to the Nashville RDC, bringing the total possible pool of funding for Stellar to closer to $41.5 million.
If Nashville-Brown County is interested in trying again, Curtin recommended doing so in 2020 — but only if the community is truly interested.
No discussion dates have been set yet, but Curtin and Nashville RDC members are working to schedule some.
“Town RDC is studying the possibilities,” said Nashville RDC President Dan Snow.
“We are determined to make the process — if any — a unified effort by the community, county and town officials that gives everyone a voice.”
Last time we tried
Nashville-Brown County’s last bid for Stellar came together quickly — too quickly and without enough transparency and public input, said community members who organized against it.
The 2014 attempt started that February with discussion among a select group of town and county leaders, a few days before a letter of intent was due. That letter was submitted to the state before many Brown Countians knew what Stellar was or that the town and county were applying for it.
“We had a weekend to put the letter together and we didn’t have time for public input, so the items that were selected were not everybody’s favorite projects, and that caused some issues,” Jane Gore explained at the Nashville Redevelopment Commission meeting on June 4. She was on the town council then and now and also serves on the Nashville RDC.
The proposed projects in 2014 included:
- installing new water lines in downtown Nashville;
- making the courthouse and County Office Building handicap-accessible;
- building a recreation center at Deer Run Park;
- building senior housing on the “Blue Elk” field at Clay Lick Road and Old State Road 46;
- expanding the Brown County Art Gallery;
- building the middle section of the Salt Creek Trail;
- rehabbing the Brown County Playhouse;
- helping local homeowners make essential renovations to keep them in their homes; and
- doing cosmetic work to streets and/or sidewalks in downtown Nashville.
Residents accused the local Stellar committee of making plans “behind closed doors.” An advocacy group formed, Concerned Citizens, and it filed Open Door Law complaints. Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt ultimately decided that the Stellar committee was not required to abide by the Open Door Law, which requires that certain types of meetings be open to the public, but the Stellar committee later opened its meetings anyway after the Concerned Citizens asked to be looped in.
On the day in July 2014 when the local Stellar committee made its pitch to the state Stellar selection committee, protesters holding signs which read “No Stellar — Not This Year” were visible at nearly every project site and some also spoke during the presentation.
Some of their concerns were that the projects were too “ambitious,” that they didn’t represent “the true needs of the community” or benefit everyone, and that the local Stellar committee didn’t take in “real public input.”
When the state Stellar committee visited Nashville again that fall after breaking the news that Nashville-Brown County didn’t win a designation, state committee members said that the public protest didn’t make their decision; they based it on the overall merit of the application.
Matthew Crouch, who was on the state Stellar committee, told the local committee in the fall of 2014 that if Nashville-Brown County ever tried again, it would need to make sure that “all sides, all groups have been involved in the planning ahead of time and throughout the process.”
Curtin gave the same advice earlier this month. He told the Nashville RDC on June 4 that if the town and county even want to think about applying for Stellar again, they need to start by going to the public for guidance first. Those discussions need to start now, many months ahead of when any letter of intent might be due, he said.
Another chief concern of residents was the amount of local “match money” needed to make the 2014 Stellar projects happen and uncertainty about where that money would come from, said Jim Schultz, a member of the Brown County Redevelopment Commission. He attended the June 4 Nashville RDC meeting.
In 2014, Nashville-Brown County was proposing Stellar projects totaling $24,300,029; of that total, $9,242,992 would have been needed from sources outside of the Stellar program to get them finished.
Some of that $9.2 million had been pledged or was planned to be raised from private donors, some of it was tax money, some of it was grants or loans from other government sources, and some of it was coming from the proceeds of selling of the former For Bare Feet sock factory in Helmsburg to The Beamery.
Residents worried that if any of the project financing plans faltered, they could be liable for the balance of the money that was needed to complete the projects.
Curtin told Schultz and others at the Nashville RDC meeting that it isn’t certain how much match money would be needed for Stellar in 2020 because that would depend on what the projects were.
“The last time it failed quickly and catastrophically because people found out toward the end of the presentation, after a lot of work had been done around it, that it was going to cost the community money,” Schultz said. If Nashville-Brown County is going to try again, “we have to acknowledge upfront that this is an investment in ourselves that we’re going to have to be willing to make.”
“There will be a local match,” said Nashville RDC member Roger Kelso. “We’re going to address that right upfront.”
Schultz, the only representative of county government at the Nashville RDC meeting, said that the county had not made any commitment to apply for Stellar again; his board would need more information before making any decision.
No one from the town has made any commitments either.
“I’m not in, and the county RDC is not in, unless we know what the local liability could be approximately,” Schultz said.
Open call for ideas
Curtin advised anyone who decides to lead a Stellar bid for Nashville-Brown County not to come into any meeting with a list of possible projects. “The danger in doing that is that (the perception is) ‘It’s already decided,’” he said.
“It’s going to the community and saying, ‘Here’s an opportunity for funding; what are the kinds of things that you’d like to see done?’”
Local leaders could help to start the conversation by bringing up past project possibilities that had been identified in local surveys and checking to see if community members thought those were still important or if they even wanted them. It’s also important to ask, “If something is not on that list, what is that?” he said.
If community meetings show that residents are not into applying for Stellar again, Kelso said that personally, he wouldn’t support it either.
“If they’re not interested at all, I’m done, because I’m … in the fourth quarter (of life) and I don’t want to spend it trying to play a last-second shot,” he said.
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The Stellar funding agents offer loans, grants and other funding opportunities to Stellar Communities to complete projects in several areas:
- Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) (up to $8 million). These can be used for a variety of projects such as building sewer and water systems, community centers, and other projects that improve residents’ quality of life, health and safety.
- Rental housing tax credits through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Association (IHCDA)(up to $1.6 million). These can help a developer construct a housing development, typically for senior or low-income households.
- Development fund loan from the IHCDA (up to $500,000). This can be used to create safe, affordable housing and economic development projects.
- HOME Investment Partnerships Program loan from the IHCDA (up to $400,000). This can be used to build, buy and/or rehabilitate affordable housing for rent or ownership or to provide direct rental assistance to low-income households.
- Owner-occupied rehabilitation money (up to $500,000). This is to help low-income people make essential repairs to their homes so that they can stay in them.
- Rural Federal Aid Program money from the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) (up to $4 million). This can be used for work on bridges, roads, safety projects or “alternative transportation” projects.
- Health & Wellness Program money from the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH)(up to $75,000). This can be used to address a community challenge with a project such as creating a community garden, farmers markets, wellness programming, behavioral health services (counseling), support groups, community meal services or breastfeeding support, or other ideas.
- Placemaking grant from OCRA (up to $30,000). This can be used to enhance a public space in a creative way.
- Planning grant from OCRA (up to $20,000). This can be used to plan for long-term community development relating to issues such as infrastructure, internet, downtown revitalization and community spaces.
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