Wabash puts finishing touches on Stellar Communities plans

Following a movie about the City of Wabash, 11 presenters will make brief remarks about the various projects to be included in the city’s Stellar Plans. Following the remarks, representatives from the Stellar group and the city will visit the various sites.

“Working out the logistics of a community presentation such as this is complicated, maybe the most complicated piece,” said Bill Konyha, who is heading up the city’s Stellar Grant Committee. “There are so many moving parts and of course I believe that if anything can go wrong it will, and at the worst possible time.”

A run-through took place last week at the Eagles Theatre, and a formal dress rehearsal is planned for today, all designed to work out any problems in the presentation.

“I think we’ve tried to dot every I and cross every T,” Mayor Robert Vanlandingham said.

He, too, is worried about something unforeseen happening. But the key, he said, should something unexpected happen is how the city representatives respond.

“You plan for these kinds of things,” he said. “But I think part of Stellar also is if something goes haywire, doesn’t work out quite right, I think they look at how does the city respond to that?

“It’s like anything else; something’s going to happen. So you have to be prepared and understand that hey, there’s a possibility that something’s going to happen, so how are we going to handle it the best. I think we’ve got people and good leadership. I think we’ll be OK.”

Konyha said 11 people will make presentations at the Eagles Theatre.

“Some are very used to speaking to groups, others not so much,” he said. “We provided bullet points for them with a focus upon each project and its impact to the community.”

This is the second year that Wabash was a finalist in the Stellar program. It finished third last year behind Richmond and Bedford.

“With every economic development project, and this is a community and economic development project, we meet and conduct a post mortem in an effort to learn from the things that we did well and the components upon which we could improve,” Konyha said. “After our third place finish last year, I made the statement that I did not think that there was anything I would change.

“However, with the passage of a little time and after we met with all the agencies involved, we began to see some things that we could do differently. Not wholesale changes but snippets that could be added to improve our plan.”

The biggest issue, he believes, is that the city demonstrate the projects are ready, or nearly ready, to begin.

“We thought we had learned from some issues that those evaluating our proposal deemed to be shortcomings,” Konyha said. “Those items have all been addressed and I believe the Strategic Investment Plan is much improved.”

Included in the city’s Stellar plans are improvements to the Eagles Theatre, creating an all-inclusive playground at the John Drook Memorial Park, a downtown façade improvement program, creation of an amphitheater at Paradise Spring Historical Park, continuation of the Streetscape improvement program, continuation of the Wabash Riverwalk, Charley Creek and Cultural trails, improvements to the Ind. 13-Ind. 15 Corridor on the city’s southside, a program to help refurbish homes in a portion of the city, and creation of the Rock City Lofts in downtown Wabash.

Christine Flohr, director of the Wabash County Convention and Visitors Bureau, will be one of the presenters, speaking about the Ind. 13-Ind. 15 Corridor.

“It is basically from the (Wabash Street) bridge north,” she said of the project. “It is extending Streetscape, making the area more pedestrian friendly so alternate transportation is much more user-friendly and safer.

“Also, there’s a lot of visual noise along the 13-15 Corridor; lots of signs and power lines and power poles. So by dressing those up by continuing lampposts down the sidewalk, some green space with trees along the sidewalks, widening the sidewalks, improving the sidewalks, taking residents and visitors who enter the city from the south and presents them with a quality of place the City of Wabash is.”

The city’s Stellar Committee, which has been meeting the last two years, is composed of a variety of volunteers from all around the city.

“For us this has been a process that stretches out more than two years,” Konyha said. “We did all we could to encourage wide-based public participation and have been very pleased with all who participated. Still, after all of our efforts and what I consider to be a major local public relations effort we occasionally learn of someone who does not know anything about the project, or a few who do not feel empowered to join the process.

“We understand that the heavy lifting begins after we are designated as a Stellar Community. So, to those who have just learned of the project, or those who were unable for whatever reason to join into any of the public meetings, public hearings, focus groups or interviews, there will still be time for you to join in the process as we work to make Wabash an even greater place to live, work and play.”

Vanlandingham believes the efforts the last two years toward the Stellar program have been good for the city.

“It really makes you take a look at yourself,” he said. “Sometimes what you see you don’t like, so you want to change it. What we’ve done this time is most of the things we’ve seen, we’ve really appreciated. We got busy last year, and we’ve learned to appreciate the planning that goes with it.

“For some reason this has a different twist to it. I think it’s because we’ve experienced it once. But I think we’re in pretty good shape.”