Crawfordsville has been named a Stellar Communities grant recipient, but it’s not certain how much money the city will receive.
Mayor Todd Barton says the city wants $18 million to invest in a slate of proposed projects, but he says that’s the best case scenario.
Barton says the Lieutenant Governor’s office will now review funding for the proposed projects, but there’s still work to do before money starts coming to the city.
“People think they hand you this big check for all this money or they bring a wheelbarrow full of money and then drop it off. It’s nothing like that,” Barton says. “It’s putting you at the front of the line for existing grant funds.”
Barton says residents will see changes soon, but not overnight.
“I tell everyone that our downtown will look very different in a few years and I believe that, so they’re going to start to see some things in the next year but it’ll take a couple or three years before you really start to see the substantial stuff,” Barton says.
Barton says the two main goals are attracting young, college-educated residents and enticing the city’s workforce to live within the city limits.
A celebration will be held in Crawfordsville in early September to explain the complete process.
