When he campaigned for mayor of the City of Shelbyville, Tom DeBaun made three campaign promises - communication, collaboration and cooperation.
The three C's have paid off for DeBaun and Shelbyville, as the city recently learned it has won a 2014 Indiana Association of Cities and Towns Local Government Cooperation Award.
In addition to the City of Shelbyville, Shelby County, Shelbyville Central Schools and the Shelby County Fair Board were also recognized. The entities are going to receive their awards Sept. 10 at an event in Fort Wayne.
According to a release from IACT, Shelbyville earned the distinction for spearheading initiatives that prove how collaboration and cooperation can achieve success in economic development and community involvement.
One initiative was the city partnering with Shelby County and Rose-Hulman to increase STEM opportunities for students and also a benefit to local companies through its IMPaCT Shelby County.
The second project recognized was the Shelby County Fair Grandstands project, which was completed prior to the Shelby County Fair earlier this year.
"Members of the Shelby County Fair Board, City of Shelbyville and Shelby County came together to find a solution to replace the historic Grandstands. A design team and contractors built a new Grandstands that the community can take pride in using," the release from IACT states.
DeBaun said if various entities are not willing to work together for success, not much will be accomplished.
"The partnerships have been critical because each partner brings a resource to the deal that benefits the entire group and the community as a whole. Rose-Hulman, in particular, was a program that affects all the schools in the county. Therefore, the participation of the county made sense. The Grandstands was another project that had specific challenges that involved the fair board, county and the city, so, again, since no one group could do it alone for various reasons, a partnership made sense. Because we've been successful at these efforts future projects should be easier because we now have firm relationships and established goals," DeBaun said.
IACT Executive Director and CEO Matt Greller praised the partnerships.
"Our members frequently ask for best practices that embrace the principles of operating at maximum efficiency while building communities with a great quality of life. The City of Shelbyville, Project IMPaCT and the outstanding fairgrounds improvements will be examples that our communities can learn from," Greller said.