Thursday, February 23, 2012

"The State of the City is Good"

Mayor Sue Murray delivered the annual State of the City address to the Greencastle Rotary Club yesterday.  In case you missed it, here's the full text of her remarks: 


"For a community of just over 10,000, in the State of Indiana, starting 2012, the state of the city is good.

Greencastle finished 2011 as we have for the last four years.  Financially, we ended the year in the black. We have money in the bank, and we have been able to continue to provide the services that our citizens expect.  This year’s report, however,  cannot be made without acknowledging the increasing financial pressures on local governments and programs, the amazing dedication of our city employees, and the extraordinary opportunity the Stellar Community Grant brings to us.

First, I would like to share some of the significant accomplishments and events of 2011.
  • Percy Julian Drive was rebuilt.
  • Aside from Percy we invested just under $150,000 in our roads and $100,000 in sidewalks and ADA ramps.
  • Preliminary Engineering has begun for South Street.
  • Crown Equipment is finishing a construction project that nearly doubles the size of its plant and eventually will add some 145 jobs.
  • Phoenix Closures has come to town and taken over a “dinosaur” of a building.
  • Greencastle was named the IACT Green Community of the Year for the 4th year in a row. A Tree City for the 12th year and a recipient of the Growth Award for the 2nd year in a row.
  • Three of our neighborhoods are now recognized on the National Register as historic districts.  (This Old House named Greencastle as the best value in Indiana for anyone looking to purchase a historic home.)
  • Our Community Garden has doubled in size and now is completely fenced.
  • We continue to have ward meetings.  Our focus this time has been on the Neighborhood Watch Program.
  • We’re within 42 of completing our change-out of water meters to radio reads. (3727 total)
  • Senator Lugar came to Greencastle to help celebrate the first round of energy saving initiatives in the schools that came about through the RISE grant that was awarded by the Putnam County Community Foundation to our Sustainability Commission.
  • In September, Bill Dory and I had the opportunity to visit China and Japan as a member of the Lt. Governor’s Trade Mission.
  • And we were one of the two communities selected to receive a Stellar Community Pilot Project Grant.
STELLAR COMMUNITY GRANT  
  • Opportunity to bring up to 19.1 million dollars into the community for infrastructure projects.
  • Program of connectivity and enhancement.
    1. Downtown façade improvements
    2. Construction/reconstruction of downtown loft spaces.
    3. Creation of a campus/community bookstore in the downtown.
    4. Anderson Street entrance to DePauw University.
    5. Streetscaping and infrastructure improvements to parts of Locust, Spring, College, Vine, Indiana, and Washington Street.
    6. Owner occupied home rehabilitation in the designated downtown district.
    7. Parking structure.
    8. Construction of the Campus Link trail.
    9. Joint university wellness/community health clinic.
    10. Wi-Fi bubble.
    11. Wayfinding signage.  
    12. Extension of ISO programming and the arts. 
The challenges that we know we will face in 2012 will be challenges of revenues and budget.  We will have challenges in managing the projects and the construction that will be going on in a fairly compact area in our community.   We will be challenged to create the infrastructure to populate and care for our downtown investment.  We will be challenged to create new employment opportunities and to maintain the jobs that we have.  We are also acutely aware of the many influences, opportunities and coincidences that are outside of our municipal control, but do have a profound effect on how we plan and how we do our jobs.  We must be ready for them.  We will continue to look for partnerships and opportunities for collaboration that will help us grow and enhance our human, social and physical capital.  Finally, we must believe that by working together we can and we will create the kind of Greencastle our children and grandchildren will be proud to call home."
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Monday, December 19, 2011

Buy Local This Holiday Season



Holiday shopping-time is winding down. But if you're still looking for a great gift idea, look no further!  Why don't you give your friends or family a "Buy Local" gift certificate?

The Greater Greencastle Chamber of Commerce has Buy Local gift certificates available right now, and they can be redeemed at one of nearly 100 area businesses.  These companies offer everything from apparel, automotive supplies and services, technology products and services, entertainment, flowers and gifts, health and beauty supplies and services, home and garden items, and lodging.  Restaurants and other specialty stores are also on the list of gift certificate participants.



You can purchase a gift certificate, in amounts of $10 or $25, by going to the Chamber's offices at 16 S. Jackson St., or by calling 765-653-4517.

The Chamber is also partnering with local businesses to offer "24 Days of Buy Local Savings" through this Saturday.  This week, deals are available on appliances, home decor, restaurant meals, clothing and the local newspaper.  Click here to see the calendar listings of Buy Local savings for Dec. 19 through Dec. 24.

Thanks for all you do to support Greencastle businesses.  We appreciate your efforts to keep local dollars in our community.

Happy holidays!





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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Night Stalkings…Er, Stockings…


The “Night Stockings.”

If you’ve been on the courthouse square, you’ve seen ‘em. If you’ve stopped by City Hall, you’ve seen ‘em.

Someone has been stalking the City of Greencastle at night, to find just the right spots for their knitted creations.

It remains a mystery who’s behind these colorful adornments, but they are certainly pleasing to the eye.

Others have blogged about the stockings, too, of course – one blogger even helped us learn a new term: “yarn bombing,” which is described as a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth, rather than paint or chalk.



Still, no one knows the intrepid knitter’s identity.

Anyone care to guess who’s leaving the Night Stockings around town? Any hints at all?

Let us know in the Comments section below!



Posted by at 11:52 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 15, 2011

Greencastle Community Garden: Major Progress and Moving Into Phase Two

This summer, the Greencastle Community Garden has been rebuilt, thanks to a number of DePauw students and local residents.

Project Coordinator Michael Verbeek, a DePauw junior and Bonner Scholar, has led the community garden project over the past few months. He and members of the university’s Spanish Immersion Program, which is made up of both incoming freshmen and upperclassmen leaders, ensured that the garden was tilled, composted and fenced. They even helped build the ten 8-by-4 foot plots that are featured in the space.







Local volunteers lent a hand, as well. Bruce Sanders, the primary manager of the garden, was pivotal to this summer’s progress, and Brian Cox provided fencing expertise. Matt Brauer, a recent graduate of DePauw, also helped out.

Financial support for the most recent community garden efforts came from a generous grant by the DePauw University Bonner Program Community Fund. The grant not only made it possible for the plots and fence to be constructed, but it also allowed for the inclusion of an ADA-accessible bed.

These combined efforts mean that phase one of this year’s project is now complete . Phase two will begin at the end of the season. Tires and cinder block plots will soon be removed and replaced with new wooden plot dividers. By the end of the project, Verbeek estimates there will be about 30 plots in total.

Future plans for the garden include a picnic table and a sign designed and colored by elementary school students.

The Greencastle Community Garden is located on the City Hall reserve parking site off Franklin St. First launched in 2009, it is a culmination of the hard work of community members, DePauw students, and the Greencastle Sustainability Commission.

*Please note: All of the compost for the Greencastle Community Garden was donated by DePauw University. Next spring Verbeek plans to organize a composting day where local residents can utilize extra compost from DePauw to further promote home gardening.
Posted by at 12:42 PM 0 comments

Friday, May 27, 2011

Happy 50th Anniversary to the Putnam County Playhouse!



















We are nearing the end of what Mayor Sue Murray officially proclaimed "Putnam County Playhouse 50th Anniversary Week."

Yes, this week, May 22-28, 2011, has been all about celebrating the Putnam County Playhouse's big milestone!

Above are some photos we took outside the playhouse recently, as well as a shot of the banner hanging near City Hall commemorating the anniversary. The Banner-Graphic has put together a great series of stories on the history of the theater -- you can read the first installment of the series by clicking here.

Don't forget: the playhouse is having an open house tomorrow, May 28, from 3 to 5 p.m. There will be refreshments and, of course, entertainment.

What's your favorite memory of the playhouse? Be sure to share it below! And here's to 50 more years of fun at the Putnam County Playhouse!
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Putnam RISE earns well-deserved attention


We thought you'd enjoy this story from the Herald-Times in Bloomington. It's a great article about Putnam RISE, a broad partnership that's bringing energy savings and investments to schools, homes and businesses across the county.

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Putting the ‘green’ in Greencastle
Putnam RISE involves whole county in saving energy

By Dawn Hewitt331-4377 | dhewitt@heraldt.com
April 8, 2011

An initiative is under way in Putnam County that encourages residents, civic organizations and governmental units to cut energy use and support the local economy. Energy challenges are heating up homes and schools, with cash and prizes valued at more than $40,000 at stake.

Some lucky resident of Putnam County — Greencastle is the county seat — will win a “Green Home Makeover” that includes four new energy-efficient home appliances; 100 homes will receive free energy audits; and 21 homes will get weatherized — for free.

Schools are competing, not only to cut their March and April electric and natural gas bills relative to the same months in 2010, but also to get households to sign on to an Energy Saving Pledge, in which residents promise to take any or all of dozens of actions to cut energy consumption and to save money on utility bills.

The project is called Putnam RISE — Renewal, Investment, Savings and Efficiency — and is funded by the Putnam County Community Foundation and the Vectren Foundation. Partners are numerous, including all 16 schools in the county’s four public school corporations; the Greencastle Chamber of Commerce; Greencastle Presbyterian Church; and Shuee & Sons Great Buys Plus, the local store that will donate the four appliances.

Similar initiatives have been undertaken or are under way in Monroe County — examples include free home energy audits from the city of Bloomington , the Earth Care interfaith coalitions’s energy conservation program and Indiana University ’s own campuswide energy challenge competition. However, Putnam County ’s approach is to reach multiple constituencies with a single, comprehensive program.

As of Tuesday, 1,005 homes have taken the Energy Saving Pledge in Putnam County , which counted only 12,374 households in the 2000 Census. That means 8 percent of the county’s households are participating.

And for reasons Greencastle Sustainability Commission Chairman Steve Setchell can’t explain, 21 households in Indianapolis , Terre Haute , Bloomington and elsewhere have signed the online pledge as well.

“Our interest is, on the most broad level, to help households across county to secure energy savings from efficiency and conservation efforts represented in the pledge,” Setchell said. “Greencastle schools, for example, have been working on this since 2006, and have secured well over a half-million dollars in savings at a time when budgets are streamlined. That’s money we can reinvest in teachers, students and instruction.”

The Greencastle Chamber of Commerce is on board, too, organizing a buy-local campaign that will offer “Buy Local Bucks” — coupons given with certain purchases at local retailers that are good for discounts at other local stores. That component of Putnam RISE is expected to kick off May 1.

“We realized we wanted to strengthen the value of local consumption, realizing that local business are the red, beating heart of the community,” Setchell said.

Setchell said Greencastle’s mayor, Sue Murray, is an enthusiastic proponent of Putnam RISE.

“Efforts to make our greater community more energy efficient are a benefit to all. Not only can it help individuals, households, schools, and municipalities save money, the benefits of learning more sustainable practices are good for the planet and last a lifetime,” Murray said in an email. “Sustainability is something I have been interested in before taking office, and as a city, we have worked hard to improve our practices, and are very proud to be the only city in Indiana to receive Indiana Association of Cities and Towns’ Green Community of the Year award each of the three years that the state evaluation competition has been offered.”

The Greencastle Sustainability Commission says in its mission statement that “it will take a village to achieve environmental solutions to strengthen our community, economy, culture and quality of life.”

Putnam RISE has invited not just the village, but the entire county to reach together for that common goal.
Posted by at 5:16 PM 0 comments

Monday, March 7, 2011

Stellar Communities Success



We received some outstanding news today! The City of Greencastle was selected as one of the two pilot communities for the state's new multi-year, multi-million-dollar Stellar Communities program!

We are so proud of the hard work that so many people put into our proposal for this program. There's no doubt that our strong partnership with DePauw played a huge role in this positive outcome. THANK YOU to everyone who did their part to ensure that Greencastle came out on top.

We'll share more information soon on what this new state funding will mean to the city's strategic plans for the next few years, but in the meantime, click here to read Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman's news release on the Stellar Communities program, or click here to check out the Banner-Graphic's story.

One last note -- Lt. Gov. Skillman will be here on Thursday herself, to make the news official! It will be a great day!
Posted by at 11:27 PM 0 comments
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