By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Indiana’s Community Crossings grant program has been extremely kind to Decatur and the city is gearing up for still another
bid this year.
Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert told city council at its recent meeting that the state’s latest call for applications must be in by July.
Decatur did not apply for a grant during a call earlier this year after being awarded $1,456,125 in CC funds in the second half of 2024.
Saying he would like to “get some direction” on projects to be listed on an application, Gilbert added, “We need to get it in relatively soon.”
“We really need to look at Second St., from Monroe to Jackson,” Mayor Dan Rickord said, referring to a project to be listed on an application.
While a number of improvements have been made in recent years on the downtown section of Second St. from Monroe south to Five Points, little has been done on the block north of Monroe.
The city this year gets a break in that while any CC grant gained in the past required a 25% match, Gilbert said some changes made at the state level have reduced the match number to 20%.
A change made early in 2024 boosted the maximum amount which can be sought to $1.5 million, from $1 million.
Of course, as he has been pointing out of late, Rickord said monetary decisions of this size can’t be made until the General Assembly decides what it is going to do about proposed property tax cuts.
Rickord the cuts being talked about could cost the city up to $1 million over the next three years.
“Until Senate Bill 1 is finalized, we just can’t do anything (on major expenditures),” he exclaimed. “It just makes it hard. It makes it really, really hard to make such decisions now.”
How much property tax funds will be lost, if any, should be known by May, the mayor added.
So it was decided to put together some cost estimates on potential projects “and sit on it” until a possible tax loss is known.
The CC program, launched in 2016, provides funding to local units of government across Indiana for road and bridge projects.
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