BICKNELL — A grant for a $1 million downtown revitalization project slated for this fall was nearly pulled by the state Friday night over a rift between the mayor and the clerk-treasurer.
In 2010, the city was awarded a grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation totaling more than $800,000. Add a 20 percent match and the project total rounds out to about $1 million to be used for downtown improvements such as new curbs, sidewalks and street lights.
With the award from INDOT, the city worked out a deal with the county council that had the county picking most of the tab for the required 20-percent local match, leaving Bicknell to come up with only $22,000.
For months Lora Lewis, INDOT's local programs director, has been asking the city for that money but never could get an answer as to when the check would be cut.
Friday evening the city council and Board of Works met in special session with Lewis, Mayor Jon Flickinger and members of the clerk-treasurer's office to try to resolve the problem.
Bids on the project are to be received next week.
“We need some decision,” Lewis said. “I’m down to the wire, I have to have an answer today as to what we’re doing to be able to move forward.
“I just need some kind of agreement between the clerk and the mayor as to where the money is coming from and that’s where I’m hitting a wall,” she said. “That’s where I’m not getting anything, so we had to have this special meeting to make the decision.”
Deputy clerk Karen Fox said the mayor was withholding information and had pushed off the responsibility until the last minute, putting the project in jeopardy.
“(Clerk-treasurer Becky McGlone) was not and never has been the (the person responsible for making a decision), even though she’s asked to be ever since she’s come into office,” Fox said from the audience. “Someone else decided to take on that responsibility and someone else decided not to keep everybody involved in what’s going on.”
Lewis quickly corrected Fox, reminding the council of e-mails and letters sent by the mayor months ago, and saying the blame-game started weeks ago in the clerk's office.
“I’m just trying to get you a successful project,” Lewis said. “The first time I came to sit down with (the clerk's office) two weeks ago, what I was getting was they were going to do anything in their power to see this project fail, to be honest with you.”
Amid catcalls from the audience the council moved ahead with the project, intending to designate the $22,000 from the additional Economic Development Income Tax revenue the city will receive once the EDIT-rate increase kicks in.
That money, plus what the county has agreed to pay, will be used to retire an interest-free loan INDOT will make to the city to get the project moving forward.
The council has until the end of 2016 to pay off the loan.