The towns of Plainfield and Coatesville recently received $500,000 Community Focus Fund Grants from Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA).

The OCRA administers grants that are funded through the federal Community Development Block Grant program.

Grants were given to 33 communities throughout the state of Indiana for various amounts totaling more than $15 million.

“Grant opportunities, like this one, allow rural communities to undertake projects they might not otherwise be able to fund,” Skillman said in a press release. “The Community Focus Fund grants provide communities with the resources they need to achieve their long-term development goals and eliminate the barriers that stand in the way of their economic success.”

The Town of Coatesville will construct a new community center with the money, which will replace the old community center that was torn down in 2005. The new building will be located near downtown Coatesville and will have space for meetings, events, and activities.

The town anticipates an average of 35-50 people will use the facility every day.

Coatesville Clerk-Treasurer Ron Slover said the community center was torn down when the library was expanded.

“Due to the library expansion, both buildings were together, and theirs was in pretty bad shape with mold issues and such. They decided they needed a new building and they had to take ours down also,” he said. “The engineers said they could not separate these buildings. So the town said take it, and they tore it down and built a nice library.”

Slover said the community center would be located next to the library.

“The new community center will look like the library, we’re using the same architects,” he said.

The community center will cost $585,000 in total and Slover said construction is scheduled to be complete in February 2011.

“We’ll have bids out hopefully by the end of January and think we’ll be in pretty good shape,” he said.

The building will include space for meetings and Slover said they were planning to add a generator and showers in case the town needs it for emergency shelter. He said without the grant, the community center would not be possible.

The Town of Plainfield also received a $500,000 grant for downtown revitalization.

They plan to use the money to rehabilitate 15 building façades in their historic district, work that will include brick rehabilitation, window installation, new awnings, and new street level storefronts.

Joe James, Plainfield planning director, received the grant money from Skillman at the Statehouse recently.

He said without this money, the planned construction wouldn’t have been possible.

“The grant will be used to pay for 80 percent of the improvements to the façades of 15 buildings and most of them are historical buildings on Main Street. The property owners are responsible for 20 percent of the cost,” he said. “This is the only way we were able to fund this type of program.”

James said the project will cost $670,000 in total and that construction should begin in April, to be completed by the end of 2010.

“After we complete our U.S. 40 Street Scape project with road and sidewalk improvements, hopefully we can coordinate that with the completion of the façade program. It will transform the town center and help in the revitalization of the town center.”

James said a few of the buildings that will have work done include The Masonic Lodge, the Stafford Pharmacy building at 126 W. Main St., and the Home Place at 114 W. Main St.

“It was a pretty lengthy application process. We were denied in May of ’09 and then chosen in August for the emergency round they had. Linda Fulford with Banning Engineering was our grant administrator. She really helped us out with the grant,” he said.

He also said Ratio Architects had been chosen for the final design and that the purpose of the revitalization is to return the downtown façades to their original historical perspectives.



charlee.beasor@flyergroup.com