Cloverdale approves application for another planning study

CLOVERDALE -- The Cloverdale Town Council approved Resolution 2016-12, which authorizes the submission of an application for the Comprehensive Planning Study Planning Grant and committing the town to match $36,000 in grant funds with $4,000 in town cumulative capital funds.

“The town is actually wanting to apply for another planning study,” Kristy Jerrell, grant administrator, for Jerrell Consulting, said. “We actually just put in a downtown revitalization planning study, and we are waiting -- hoping any day now we’ll get a word on that. We’ve made it through threshold; all the threshold comments were good, so we’re just waiting for them to write the award letter.”

The $36,000 will pay the engineer-architect, which must be selected through an advertisement and interview process. The $4,000 will be used to pay Jerrell for administering the grant, making the total cost for the project $40,000.

“So Cloverdale is actually in dire need of a comprehensive planning study, which would study a lot of things in the town, such as utilities,” Jerrell said. “What this plan will entail -- it’ll look at the town’s current conditions: Utilities, public zoning, downtown revitalization, parks and recreation, a whole number of items. And then it’ll talk about implementation items, what the town could do.”

Jerrell also said that performing the planning study would make the town eligible for additional construction grants and application for the Stellar Communities Grant, which the town hopes to apply for in 2018.

The Comprehensive Planning Study Planning Grant is made possible by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, which receives funds Housing and Urban Development that are dispersed by the Indiana lieutenant governor’s office.

In other developments:

-- IDEM inspection: The Town of Cloverdale received a favorable rating from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management regarding the updateits water and sewer systems.

The next Cloverdale Town Council meeting will be Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Cloverdale Town Hall.