This photo shows an aerial view of downtown Dunkirk taken during 2014. The city on Monday turned in its final strategic plan for the state’s Stellar Communities program. It is requesting funding to help with projects that include a senior housing complex, moving the library and glass museum, creating Safe Routes to School and adding downtown lighting. Main Street runs vertically down the middle of the photo. West Jay Middle School is at the upper right. (Photo provided)
This photo shows an aerial view of downtown Dunkirk taken during 2014. The city on Monday turned in its final strategic plan for the state’s Stellar Communities program. It is requesting funding to help with projects that include a senior housing complex, moving the library and glass museum, creating Safe Routes to School and adding downtown lighting. Main Street runs vertically down the middle of the photo. West Jay Middle School is at the upper right. (Photo provided)
The final plan is in.

Local officials on Monday turned in Dunkirk’s final strategic plan for Indiana’s Stellar Communities program. The deadline for plans to be handed over to the state is today.

The 70-page plan is one of the last steps in what has been a three-year process for the city in attempting to earn grant funding for a variety of improvement projects.

Dunkirk, one of two finalists along with North Liberty in the division for communities with a population of fewer than 6,000, touts itself as a do-it-yourself city that is ready to be an example of what can be accomplished when a community comes together to strive for common goals.

“Dunkirk will serve as an example of how to make a plan, develop partnerships, use local resources and never let go of community goals,” states the plan’s cover letter signed by Mayor Dan Watson and Jay County director of community development Ami Huffman. “We are eager to show how becoming a Stellar Community will turbo boost the programs we already have in place.”

In addition to the three largest parts of the plan — moving the library and glass museum to the Stewart Brothers Building, building a senior housing complex and downtown lighting with Safe Routes to School — it expands to include a variety of complementary projects to be completed with local funding. Those include a pedestrian trail along Highland Avenue, making wifi connectivity available downtown, demolishing the current library and glass museum, painting a mural on the Weaver Building and creating a “Message in a Bottle” feature.

The “Message in a Bottle” is an effort to build on Dunkirk’s strong connection with the glass industry and give the city a tourist draw similar to Alexandria’s “World’s Largest Ball of Paint” or Milltown’s “Shoe Tree.” It would involve a “giant” glass bottle in which passers by could place messages that include their thoughts, wishes and dreams, which could then be shared via Twitter and other outlets.

The idea, the plan notes, is that “Just as the City of Dunkirk has … put its hopes and dreams into glass, everyone will be able to put theirs into our glass bottle in hopes it will grow with ours.”

“People love that stuff you go visit someplace for,” said Huffman, noting that the “Message in a Bottle” will work together with the mural on the east side of Main Street just south of Railroad Street. “It kind of ties all of that together. Cleaning that up makes a big difference.”

The key points of Dunkirk’s plan remain unchanged, with the largest portion of requested funding at $5.18 million in tax credits from Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority for the Crown Crossing Senior Housing Development that the city has been working toward with Buckeye Community Hope Foundation of Columbus, Ohio. It is also asking for $2.06 million from Indiana Department of Transportation for lighting and Safe Routes to School and $1.84 million from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs to renovate the Stewart Brothers Building on Main Street downtown and make it the new site of the city’s library and glass museum.

Those numbers have changed from previous steps in the process because of modifications in funding formulas.

The city’s plan also highlights the fact that the city, through Dunkirk Industrial Development Corporation, has control of all of the sites involved in the proposed projects. It includes detailed drawings of each project as well a detailed budget for bringing the projects to fruition.

State officials will have about a month to review the plan before about 15 of them will visit Dunkirk from 1 to 4 p.m. July 30. That visit, which will include a question-and-answer session and a tour of the sites of the proposed projects — is the final step in the Stellar selection process.

“We’ve got a lot to do to make sure that goes well,” said Watson. “It’s just going to be critical that we put our best foot forward. We should be able to answer all the questions they ask us, but we’ll need people downtown. … That’s what’s going to sell the whole thing, I think.”

The state will announce its Stellar selections Aug. 17 at the Indiana State Fair.
Dunkirk had applied for the Stellar designation, which includes funding opportunities from a variety of state agencies, in both 2013 and 2014 but failed to make the finalist list. The third time proved to be the charm, as the city was selected as a finalist in April.

Portland was a finalist for the Stellar designation in 2011 when North Vernon and Greencastle were selected as winners. Other Stellar communities were Princeton and Delphi in 2012, Richmond and Bedford in 2013 and Huntingburg and Wabash in 2014.

Watson believes Dunkirk is ready to join that list.

“I feel good,” he said. “I think it’s a slam dunk, I really do. … We’re ready.”
-30-