Logansport’s mayor is attributing the city’s lack of success with a multi-project funding opportunity to an act of sabotage, while the accused maintains she was working to protect a community asset.
The city was not among the finalists of the state’s Stellar Communities program announced earlier this month. Acceptance provides millions of dollars in grant and loan opportunities to Indiana communities each year.
Logansport pursued a Stellar designation to fund projects downtown like a parking garage, plaza, civic center and moving the Dentzel Carousel from Riverside Park.
At a mayoral candidates forum Tuesday, April 21, Logansport Mayor Ted Franklin said part of the reason the city was unsuccessful was because of a citizen’s actions to undermine the pursuit.
“When somebody in our community doesn’t like our plan, they won’t accept the entire plan of the community, they sabotage our efforts at the state level and that’s exactly what happened with our Stellar program or Stellar offer this year,” Franklin said at the forum. “It’s unfortunate, but we’re all paying a price for that and until we can get this community together, we’re going to continue to do that.”
In an interview after the forum, Franklin said Logansport resident Mercedes Brugh’s opposition to a senior housing project that didn’t come to fruition contributed to the Stellar rejection.
The city announced plans in October 2014 to sell the adjoining properties of 401 E. Market St. and 418 Fourth St., which hold the farmers market and city’s annex building respectively. Buckeye Community Fifty Seven LP, a subsidiary of the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation out of Columbus, Ohio, submitted the only bid with intentions to develop a four-story senior housing facility. The firm applied for tax credits from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority in November 2014 to fund it, but was not among the list of recipients released in late February 2015.
Little Turtle Waterway Plaza and Trail spans just to the north of the proposed development. Chairwoman of the corporation for the waterway and trail, Brugh said she opposes the project because she thinks it would visually cut off the facility from downtown.
Brugh sent correspondence to the IHCDA expressing her opposition. She also attended a board meeting of the authority in late February intending to testify against the project, but was informed the board had already decided not to award the credits.
“Downtown Logansport’s great asset is the two rivers, and Little Turtle Waterway is a $2.56 million investment in that asset,” Brugh wrote in an email to the Pharos-Tribune. “If you want the downtown to get the maximum benefit from that investment, you don’t put a four-story building between Little Turtle’s grand entrance and the downtown.”
Franklin said the move cast the city in a negative light before the IHCDA, one of the partners in the state’s Stellar program.
“The state looks at these things,” Franklin said. “They look at communities that are pulling in the same direction... The entire community suffers because it’s her thought that this isn’t the best use of the property,” Franklin said. “God bless America, everybody can speak their opinion but when they intentionally and deliberately sabotage the greater good, I have a problem with that.”
Brugh said she wasn’t the only opponent of the project, adding more than 10 people sent letters to the IHCDA. Several of the reported opponents did not return requests for comment.
Brad Meadows, an IHCDA spokesman, could not confirm if the authority received any letters regarding Logansport’s downtown senior housing proposal.
When weighing a Stellar decision, he said the IHCDA and other agencies involved in the program focus on communities’ applications rather than any correspondence received for or against projects.
“How they determine the community receiving the distinction is ultimately what is submitted by the [community’s] Stellar group,” Meadows said.
He added Stellar partner agencies will be meeting with all applicants that do not receive a designation to provide feedback on ways their applications can improve should they choose to apply in the future.
Logansport officials have expressed a desire to accommodate the farmers market should the senior housing facility come to fruition on its lot.
Others have opposed the subsidized senior housing project since it was announced in October 2014.
Among them was Brenda Quaglio, market master for the downtown farmers market. In an interview following the tax credit rejection in February, Quaglio said she wants the market remain where it is.
“It’s a wonderful spot because we’re really visible,” she said. “That’s the original spot that we started in when we first began years ago.”
Alternatives brought up by officials have included moving the market along both sides of Fourth Street south of East Market Street and the city’s east side.
Quaglio said her receptiveness to moving would rely on how much visibility the market would have in a new location.
Despite the opposition, Franklin and Logansport Community Development Director Chris Armstrong have said they hope the project will receive tax credits the next time the IHCDA distributes them later this year.