New life for community center possibility

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Timing -- as the proverbial they like to say -- is everything.

Whether you're striking while the iron's hot, running to daylight or just finding yourself in the right place at the right time, timing can be a crucial factor.

Take, for example, the long-hoped-for creation of a community center in Greencastle.

Few residents have ever doubted the need or desire for a multi-purpose structure that could host sports like recreational basketball or the wildly popular indoor soccer with room for activities or classes and possibly a kitchen to give the building a multiplicity of potential uses.

Of course, money has always been the object. Not necessarily the money to build such a facility as much as the funding to staff it, maintain it and perpetuate its usefulness.

But it's perhaps a project whose time finally may have come.

Due to a confluence of factors, the potential building of a community center may be closer to reality than ever before.

During its monthly meeting Wednesday evening at City Hall, the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission learned that the Wabash Valley YMCA program, which runs the "Y" in Clay County and operates an after-school program at Ridpath School in Greencastle, may be interested in expanding its local operations.

It would possibly staff the community center and fund operations while leasing the building from the city if everything works out. The city would be responsible only for the building.

"That's a significant change, having the 'Y' step forward," Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center Director Bill Dory noted as Redevelopment Commission members pondered the possibilities.

That new development comes at an opportune time since the City of Greencastle now operates Big Walnut Sports Park, where a community center has been long envisioned, and a change is coming in how the State of Indiana governs existing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts.

The latter could motivate the Redevelopment Commission to take on a bonding project -- i.e., a community center -- by the June 30 deadline to extend the life of so-called legacy TIF districts established before April 1, 1995.

District 24 State Sen. Pete Miller (R-Avon), who represents part of Putnam County, authored the bill that led to the TIF changes. Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray spoke with Sen. Miller at the Jan. 17 Legislative Update program, and he assured her the change in TIF is indeed coming July 1.

"I think it's important to remember what the East Side TIF district has meant to us," Mayor Murray said, alluding to being able to leverage those funds for projects like the Percy Julian Drive improvements a couple of years ago.

"The legislation is not going to change,"she told the commission. "The timeline is short, so we need to be pro-active. It's not just about spending money but about spending money wisely."

Under current law, TIF districts created before July 1, 1995, never expire. Those created later have 30- or 25-year expiration dates, depending on when they were formed.

The new law takes effect July 1, requiring all legacy TIF districts to expire June 30, 2025, unless they are repaying bonds issued before July 1, 2015. Those districts would expire June 30, 2040.

"We're trying to get back to the original purpose of tax increment finance," Miller has said in defending the legislation. "The intent is that you are enabling the creation of assessed value that otherwise would not have occurred."

If the community center idea does not bear fruit in time, the fallback position in order for the city to retain its TIF district would be to bond for an infrastructure project, possibly the upgrading of Indianapolis Road east of the stoplight at Kroger.

Without capturing funds through a TIF district, there is virtually no way to fund a community center, members agreed.

With property tax levels limited by the state, doing such a project within the city budget would be impossible.

"We wouldn't be able to do it," City Attorney Laurie Hardwick assured, "even if we wanted to ...

"And we've wanted to," Hardwick and Mayor Murray added in unison.

"We've never had a fear we couldn't build something," said Murray who initially approached the YMCA group. "The fear has always been sustaining it."

The community center is seen as a $3.5 million to $5 million project (with the bond repaid through the capture of incremental new assessed valuation within the TIF district), depending on amenities, the mayor said. An earlier version was designed for $2.5 million but that was without locker rooms, a kitchen or much meeting space that would add significant flexibility to the facility.

"It's a quality-of-life project and an economic development project," attorney Hardwick suggested.

The Redevelopment Commission took no formal action on the community center idea but passed a motion to support continued exploration of the possibilities.

Gwen Morris made the motion to support the notion, while Drew Brattain, Tanis Monday and Erika Gilmore added affirmative votes. Board member Gary Lemon was absent.

The idea is still in the early stages and the Wabash Valley YMCA is expected to conduct its own feasibility study, as it did when it expanded from Clay County into Vigo County and changed its name to reflect the Wabash Valley as a whole.

By the Redevelopment Commission's next meeting, set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 25 at City Hall, Hardwick said she could have a preliminary schedule for engaging bond counsel and an accounting firm for the bonding effort, whether it's ultimately the community center idea or an infrastructure project.

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