Courtesy of Indiana Bicentennial Commission The design of the plaza is centered on a fountain located at street level and featuring walkable stone pavement covered by a shallow layer of water. Bubbling water jets provide a soothing effect but also can be turned off to create a reflecting surface. Several rows of "seating cubes" will extend westward from the Statehouse through the area of the fountain. Instead of using limestone, which would deteriorate over time in the water, workers will install cubes fabricated from damage-resistant polycarbonate.
Courtesy of Indiana Bicentennial Commission The design of the plaza is centered on a fountain located at street level and featuring walkable stone pavement covered by a shallow layer of water. Bubbling water jets provide a soothing effect but also can be turned off to create a reflecting surface. Several rows of "seating cubes" will extend westward from the Statehouse through the area of the fountain. Instead of using limestone, which would deteriorate over time in the water, workers will install cubes fabricated from damage-resistant polycarbonate.
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INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana is preparing to throw itself a big 200th birthday party, with projected costs to commemorate the state’s bicentennial hovering at more than $50 million.

The state turns 200 on December 11, 2016, but already plans are in the works to hold a torch relay (styled off the Olympic one) across the state. Also, Wesselman Nature Society in Evansville is part of a new nature center network created for the bicentennial.

The group charged with leading the celebration is working to foster a legacy in how people remember the bicentennial, said Perry Hammock, executive director of the Indiana Bicentennial Commission.

“How can we honor that legacy? Of not just celebrating, but leaving something behind,” he said.

As part of the celebration, a number of new building projects are planned. Lawmakers provided a funding mechanism in the new state budget to build a bicentennial plaza at the Indiana Statehouse, a new state archives facility and a bicentennial inn at Potato Creek State Park in Northern Indiana.

Gov. Mike Pence’s administration is planning to offset the costs of the bicentennial from funds received through long-term leases of the state’s cell towers. The state owns more than 330 cell towers, and the arrangements will center on leasing underutilized cell tower capacity, said Brian Bailey, state budget director.

“The legislation has been in effect for a little more than two weeks and steps are being taken to collect information on all available options, although it is too early to speculate on the specifics,” Bailey said in an email to the Courier & Press.

Along with the signature projects planned for the bicentennial, the commission is working to endorse local projects across the state being compiled to commemorate the milestone by groups ranging from historical societies to Girl Scout troops. Wesselman is part of one of those projects, and its director says it will gain curriculum material through participating in the nature center network. A new initiative also is beginning to focus on projects highlighting the health and well-being of Hoosier children.

As for the larger projects, the biggest one — at a projected cost of $25 million — is building a new state archives facility to house some of the state’s most important documents that are now in a temporary warehouse facility.

“We asked and the Legislature agreed that it is time to preserve those records for all Hoosiers to see as we move forward,” Bailey said.

The state also is planning a new education center for the Statehouse at the cost of $2.5 million for the approximate 40,000 students a year that tour the state capitol building. Outside of the statehouse, a bicentennial plaza will be built to commemorate the state’s 92 counties and show public art at the cost of $2 million and the new inn at Potato Creek is expected to cost $24 million.

The torch relay — anticipated to cost $1.6 million — will kick off in September and will cross all of Indiana’s counties for nearly six weeks. At the end of the torch relay in October, the commission is planning an outdoor family celebration at the Statehouse, complete with historic re-enactors and interpreters.

Hammock said he wants Hoosiers to leave the bicentennial with a sense of history. He said sometimes Hoosiers forget the date of Statehood Day or about assets like Buffalo Trace Park. Some residents don’t even know celebrities that hail from Indiana such as John Mellencamp or that the state is the resting place of Benjamin Harrison.

Hammock said he hopes the bicentennial serves as a way for the state to take stock of where it is and where it’s headed. Part of the celebration, he said, is working to bring more land into public domain, such as trails and downtown parks, through a nature trust. For example, in Knox County, local leaders were able to raise a local match to acquire part of a golf course going out of business and are turning it into a city park.

John Foster, executive director of the Wesselman Nature Society, said he’s happy the preservation of nature is playing a role in the celebration.

“What’s left is precious,” Foster said of forested areas in the state, “but we live in a time where we humans tend to focus on short term economic gain ... it is often the environment that pays the price.”
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