MUNCIE – Local officials are seeking money from the state’s $84 million Regional Cities Initiativefor Muncie projects as diverse as riverfront development, the Cintas makers project and the Kitselman Energy Park.
But Muncie and the surrounding counties’ request will not only have to beat other efforts from around the state but also suspicion and distrust from other local officials.
“We will be very competitive,” Mayor Dennis Tyler said recently about the effort, in which the city and Delaware County work with other East Central Indiana counties to submit, by Aug. 31, a list of projects that could win funding.
But another prominent local Democrat is doubtful about the community’s chances of winning funding and continues to be skeptical of the regional effort.
“We have a high belief that Muncie and Delaware County wouldn’t be in the mix in the next year or two,” Delaware County Council member Mike Jones told The Star Press. “The higher profile cities will get it. And I think this is the governor’s initiative and I don’t think the governor will be here after the next election, so that program will probably go away.
“By that time, I think he’s gone,” Jones added about Gov. Mike Pence.
Jones and other county council members in June expressed reluctance to go along with a Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce proposal to form a regional cities group as part of the effort to win some of the state funding.