Last Updated on March 10, 2019 by cassnetwork
Local leaders are hopeful that a new program might be the catalyst for a collaborative project that’s been evolving for several years.
The Wabash Heartland Innovation Network’s Regional Cultivation Fund will award up to $100,000 per planning grant award and up to $1 million per impact grant award to projects that improve vitality, education and connectivity in WHIN’s 10 county region.
WHIN
defines connectivity as enhancing the engagement and connection of
residents in the Wabash Heartland via waterways, broadband and/or
transportation, and vitality as increasing the attractiveness of
physical spaces for community benefit and implementing measures to
improve economic sustainability.
Last month, leaders from Cass
County participated in WHIN’s Proposer’s Day on Feb. 18.
Logansport-Cass
County Planning Director Arin Shaver outlined a project that would
help further develop amenities near Heritage Park and the Little
Turtle Waterway trailhead for the connecting regional trail routes
that meet within downtown Logansport. The project would provide
amenities like a shelter, restrooms, wayfinding, charging stations
and hotspots in downtown Logansport. Leaders are currently working on
a signed connector route between the Nickel Plate Trail in Miami
County and the Panhandle Pathway in Pulaski County.
For
several years, the Farmer’s Market lot at the corner of 4th and
Market has been identified as an underutilized area that could be
further developed.
In September, as part of Logansport
Re-Imagined Week, Shaver and a team of high school students who are
participating in the My Community, My Vision program hosted a pop-up
event to help people ‘reimagine’ the space.
Shaver has been working to secure pledges toward the required local match for the project that would allow the Logansport Parks Foundation to apply for the WHIN grant. The total project cost for this phase is $713,400 and the grant requires a 30% local match. The Logansport Redevelopment Commission has pledged $107,000 from TIF funds and the Logansport City Council is considering a $107,000 pledge from CEDIT funds.
During Proposer’s Day, Cass County Economic Development also proposed submitting a planning grant for installing rural broadband in underserved areas and the City of Logansport is looking at a planning grant for trail connection from downtown Logansport to the Panhandle Trail near France Park.
SOURCE: News release from Logansport-Cass County Planning Department
EDITOR’S NOTE: Shaver announced at Monday’s council meeting that a trail group representing multiple counties will be meeting to discuss a regional master plan and once Cass County is included in that plan, they would be able to move forward with applying for a future round of WHIN funding. The council tabled the matter and asked Shaver to return with her request closer to the actual application date.
UPDATE: A special meeting of the Logansport City Council to discuss the WHIN grant is now scheduled for Wednesday, March 13, 2019. More info here.