Officials optimistic after meeting with Preserving Main Street

While waiting for members of the selection committee to finish their interview with Main Street director, Autumn Moore, a free lunch was served in Stellar Plaza. Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, shade, and free food were, left to right, Tobi Herron, executive director of ARa; Carrie Riley, manager of municipal programs at ARa; City of North Vernon Mayor Shawn Gerkin; Greg Hicks, president of the Redevelopment Commission; Whitney Koelling, manager of municipal programs at ARa; and Rusty Hamilton, board president of North Vernon Main Street.

Photo by Tracy Eder

Hopes are high that the Preserving Main Street grant is in the bag after the stellar presentation that the mayor, redevelopment commission, and Main Street officials gave Tuesday.

On hand for the presentation were selection committee representatives from Indiana Main Street, Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA), Indiana Humanities, and Indiana Landmarks.

The presentation began with Mayor Shawn Gerkin introducing locals who played a part in the city being in the running for the grant in the first place. It also spoke well for the community that at least 40 or so concerned citizens were in attendance.

Gerkin touted the fact that North Vernon was a stellar grant recipient and how the city has used money received through READI grants. He bragged on Tripton Park, Quarry Park, and the Muscatatuck Trail, the pool and splash pad.

“Whereas 10 years ago you couldn’t have gotten people to the table, we are really getting a lot of interest from businesses and investors who are wanting to invest in our community. So many things have changed since 2012. There’s been a lot of turnover of owners of downtown buildings. The new owners want to invest in the community whereas maybe some of the former ones were not as interested,” said Gerkin.

He went on to explain that with the sale of the ETC building, the city has set aside $1,000,000 for downtown business owners. This money can be borrowed to help the locals upgrade what they have. “We don’t want you to think that we’re just here for a handout. We’ve invested a lot in our community, and we want to be partners with you,” explained Gerkin.

Main Street volunteer board members each spoke on certain aspects of the community, how far it has come, and their dreams of the future, while preserving the past.

Maqenzi Hovious touched on quality of life in the community and making an impact, increasing engagement, and a feeling of belonging. “We want residents to feel like this is their Main Street. We are constantly working with owners to individualize their needs.”

Emily Robinson, another board member stated, “One thing we’re excited about with the possibility of this grant is the partnership with Indiana Landmarks. The first audience is our business and building owners downtown and the second audience is the community at large. There are so many people that care about the history of downtown.”

Rusty Hamilton, forever the salesman, “sold” North Vernon to the panel of decision makers. He boasted his work on the old Cone house where he now resides, “It’s been an amazing journey and a beautiful place to live. The reason I tell you that story is because doing that (remodeling) is expensive, I mean really expensive.” Continuing, Hamilton said, “We have building owners downtown that know it’s expensive to do this right and I know first-hand what it’s like. I’d like to bridge that gap. I can see where building owners struggle with that. It’s important that we do the right thing. Let’s get this place active, let’s get these places picked up and cleaned up.”

Cole Byram, downtown building owner, spoke via video on buying a building that his family previously owned. “This is an opportunity, a community full of life and people who care about the history and people who deserve a Main Street worthy of the community.”

Redevelopment Commission President Greg Hicks told the panel about the history of the RDC itself, telling how it was instrumental in bringing businesses to town.

Hicks informed the panel about the money that has been used to improve the community. “We’ve spent $800,000 to improve ball diamonds to bring people into the county and since early spring, there’s been 293,000 visits to the city park for ball tournaments. Those are the kinds of projects that we like to do.”

He continued that Hamilton and Autumn Moore, Main Street Director, went to an RDC meeting one day and “our board was so excited, it didn’t take five minutes to approve $200,000 to use to match this program so that when you do give us this money, the Redevelopment Commission has the matching funds ready to go,” said Hicks. “We are committed to this.”

Business partner, Lori Brown, talked about how her company, Shepherd Insurance, chose downtown North Vernon for their business. They purchased a building and remodeled it. “I think our community has character. As a business owner, I am thrilled to be downtown. I’ve been blessed to know Steve Gasper, who owns several buildings downtown, and he pointed out a building that he said would be perfect for Shepherd Insurance. He knocked it out of the ballpark.” She continued, that Gasper “did that when there really wasn’t anybody else to help. I want to keep the momentum and enthusiasm going.”

Moore told the panel, “It’s home and it feels comfortable coming downtown. We want North Vernon to be a destination, not a pass through.”

The panel asked questions as well. After one question, Steve Gasper, downtown building owner, gave an impromptu talk about how “It’s the condition of the old buildings that’s scaring people away. If somebody can take it on and get it revitalized, we tend to get calls. They don’t stay empty long. I get three or four calls a month from people wondering if we have a building. If we had more money, we could put more contractors in there. But prospective business owners wanting to move downtown want move-in ready buildings. I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me,” said Gasper.

Moore went on to explain that she would like to see businesses in town where people could go to spend money. “We don’t want Amazon to be our best friend.”

“What are the stats on occupation of the upstairs of these buildings?” was a question the local board heard.

The mayor answered, “We have a developer that wants to build a 54-unit apartment where the fire was. If he gets enough READI dollars, he’s also going to rehab the two Greathouse buildings.” Gasper also answered by saying that he has four buildings in town that have beautiful downstairs, but the upstairs need work for apartments.

A walking tour of the downtown area was taken after the meeting.

After the presentation, the mayor commented, “I thought the presentation and follow up tour with the group went well and hope we were able to articulate to them just how transforming these dollars will be to our community. I also want to thank all of those that joined me in the presentation, I thought they all did a magnificent job.”

With the same opinion as Gerkin, was Moore. “I think the meeting went great; it was wonderful to share the work and vision we have for downtown with the state and community. We are excited for the opportunity.”

The $2,000,000 grant will be used for downtown revitalization, such as facades on buildings. “This could be a complete transformation for our city,” said Hamilton.

The final decision for the grant will be made Sept. 22

Source: https://www.madisoncourier.com/north_vernon/officials-optimistic-after-meeting-with-preserving-indiana-committee/article_a77f0d3b-3e6b-5d30-bd5a-24b651706dab.html