The City of Wabash and American Structurepoint entered an agreement Wednesday for the Indianapolis-based firm to help the city go through the Stellar Communities application process.
The Wabash Board of Works and Public Safety approved the measure Wednesday morning. The firm’s pay is contingent upon the city being selected as a finalist for the Stellar Community award.
The Stellar Community program is a multi-agency partnership which helps fund comprehensive community development projects in smaller Indiana communities. It is overseen by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs and the Indiana Department of Transportation, as well as the state’s Revolving Fund.
Now in its third year, the Stellar Community program seeks “smaller, more rural communities around Indiana and provides significant amounts of funding for programs related to their Master Plan,” according to Chris Hamm, a principal planner for American Structurepoint.
If the city is selected as a Stellar Community, it could receive between $15 and $30 million for various projects around the community, he said. That amount could increase or decrease, depending on funding available, he added.
“It’s a very competitive process,” Hamm said. “There have been over 90 communities who have applied in the state of Indiana and only four winners. We’re excited to be engaged with the City of Wabash in helping to apply for that program in hopes of being selected as a finalist.”
He said application letters will likely have to be submitted yet this month to the state. After that, 10 finalists will be selected in about another month. The finalists will then have to submit a book of information on projects which is due about 30 days after notification. Once that deadline passes, finalists should know in about 45 days if they were named a Stellar Community.
“For those communities that have been selected, it’s been transformative more than anything,” Hamm said. “That process has really helped them do things that they couldn’t have afforded to do otherwise.”
The finalists will receive a $10,000 grant to help offset expenses. If the city is selected as a finalist, that grant would go to American Structurepoint as payment. If it is selected as a Stellar Community, the firm will then serve as project manager for the various projects the city has planned. The fee for that is negotiable for each project, and largely depends on the scope of the work being done.
If the city doesn’t qualify as a finalist, American Structurepoint won’t charge for the work it’s completed.
“We’re really doing this on the cuff,” Hamm said. “The fee to the city, out of pocket, is zero.”
He said he thinks the city has a good chance to advance as a finalist.
“We’re very excited about the opportunity here,” Hamm said. “We think Wabash is a tremendous community. It is the right target for what they are looking for.”
So far, Princeton, Greencastle, Delphi and North Vernon have received the honor, two each the last two years.
“We’re going on the basis that we want to make the City of Wabash, the downtown, a center for the arts,” Mayor Bob Vanlandingham said.
Having some of the existing facilities, such as the Honeywell Center, the Wabash County Historical Museum, Paradise Spring Historical Park and the Wabash Riverwalk should help in the application process, he added.
Hamm reminded city officials that all requests aren’t necessarily approved.
“They don’t necessarily fund everything you ask for,” he said. “If you want a dog, you ask for a horse. We’re going to ask for more than we think they’ll give us so they can justify cutting something back and still giving us what we want.”