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Dec 30 2019
Love2

2020 will be the best year yet for Vibrant Communities

By Countywide, Elkhart, Featured News, Goshen, Middlebury & Bristol, Nappanee & Wakarusa No Comments

By Arvis Dawson and Suzie Weirick, co-chairs

It’s the people who make Elkhart County so special.

More than four years after the Vibrant Communities movement started, the reason it resonates to this day is because of how much we love Elkhart County.

We’ve learned what it means to love where you live. We speak out and cheer on the projects and programs that create an emotional attachment to this place.

From Nappanee to Goshen to Elkhart to Middlebury to Bristol to Wakarusa, neighbors and business embrace the arts as a major part of our lives. We have amazing works of public art, we go to concerts, and buy tickets to plays and musicals.

We love our downtowns and investors have noticed. New businesses are starting up everywhere — restaurants, craft breweries, shops, galleries, artisans, apartments — that add to the richness of life here.

Our parks and trails have never looked better and have never been busier. And there’s a hunger for more as more of us want to get out in nature.

We’re far from done though. The first four years were just a start.

Everywhere around us we see our neighbors putting their energy into things they care about — beautifying their neighborhood, volunteering at the school on the corner, starting neighborhood festivals, collecting food and other necessities for the needy, getting engaged in local government and fighting for policies that they care about.

We celebrated many of those people with Vibrant People of Elkhart County. But we don’t want to just celebrate; we want everyone to get out and get engaged. 

That’s why we’re starting Vibrant Champions, where you get to pledge how you’re going to better life in Elkhart County.

With Vibrant Neighborhoods, we’re going to figure out how to make our blocks and communities stronger through placemaking and policies.

We’re also reaching out to our teens, the next generation, to get them more excited about Elkhart County. And we’re bringing artists together to collaborate in ways that will just take your breath away.

2020 is going to be an incredible year. We know you’ll want to be involved.

Dec 05 2019
Love0

More Elkhart River District improvements coming this spring

By Elkhart, Featured News No Comments

The makeover of downtown Elkhart’s River District is continuing over the next several months.

Design concepts for several new public features were unveiled at a November 21 public meeting, and the River District Implementation Team is seeking feedback on the look of the plans.

This drawing shows an overhead view of the town green-style park along Jackson Boulevard near the new Martin’s Super Market. The park would be completed sometime in 2020. (Image Courtesy Insight Strategic Concepts)

Work is expected to start in early 2020 on three of the projects:

  • The town green public park adjacent to the new Martin’s grocery store that is under construction. The park will feature a central water feature, multiple walking paths snaking through the space, and many seating areas in and around the trees and green space. The park will be bounded by Jackson Boulevard, JA Drive and Lexington Avenue, which is being extended from where it ends now.
  • An access point to the Elkhart River at the end of JA Drive that includes seating, landscaping and parking suitable for canoeists and kayakers to use as they access the launch.
  • Removal of the low flow dam on the Elkhart River near East Street. This will enable public access to the river from that point all the way to the St. Joseph River and Island Park.

This drawing shows proposed improvements to the Jackson Boulevard bridge in Elkhart’s River District. (Image Courtesy Insight Strategic Concepts)

Other projects that are in the works are improvements to the Jackson Boulevard bridge that will improve the bridge’s aesthetics and make it a more pleasant walking experience between Main Street and the River District.

Also, the RiverWalk around the Elkhart Health & Aquatics center is constructed and will connect to Lundquist Park off Elkhart Avenue and provide access to the footbridge to Island Park.

Nov 22 2019
Love1

Save the date: Something Big is coming January 22, 2020

By Countywide, Elkhart, Featured News, Goshen, Middlebury & Bristol, Nappanee & Wakarusa 2 Comments

No question Elkhart County is a more awesome place every day, but how do you celebrate that?

Not just any big event will do. We’ve got The Big Event in the works.

Mark down the evening of January 22, 2020, on your calendar for an amazing night at The Lerner Theatre in downtown Elkhart.

We’re going to celebrate all the people who make Elkhart County a special place, but especially the 60-plus Little Big Idea Grant winners and the Vibrant People of Elkhart County.

You’ll hear about the big plans we have for 2020 and how you can get more engaged in our neighborhoods, civic organizations, and charities.

Best of all, you’ll find out all about Elkhart County’s new destination brand. It’s really going to turbo-charge all the wonderful work we’ve done and elevate us to even higher levels.

Last but not least, we’ll be seeing a familiar face — Peter Kageyama — the speaker who helped us kick off this exciting journey at another big event in January 2016.

His talk energized us all and confirmed that we are on the right path. Kageyama’s coming back to celebrate with us and help us see the next steps as we build an ever more vibrant Elkhart County.

We’ll be sharing more details about this event as we get closer. Stay tuned.

Nov 12 2019
Love1

Will you be one of our Vibrant Champions?

By Countywide, Elkhart, Featured News, Goshen, Middlebury & Bristol, Nappanee & Wakarusa No Comments

Do you think you’re Elkhart County’s biggest fan?

Do you favor locally owned restaurants and breweries, taking photos of your dinner and posting them on social media? 

When you shop for Christmas gifts, do you buy from local artisans so that your loved ones always have a little heavenly slice of Elkhart County with them?

Does volunteering for a local charity, or reading to kids in the classroom, or donating your time and treasure to help your neighbors make you feel all warm inside?

Being involved in Elkhart County activities makes you a Vibrant Champion

Then you might already be a Vibrant Champion!

But we think you know many other Vibrant Champions.

2020 will be a year in which we want all Vibrant Champions to shout it from the rooftops, to keep on doing what you do, and bringing your friends, neighbors and co-workers along. 

It’s a program in which you pledge to be an engaged resident of Elkhart County and keep on making our hometown a great place to live, work, play and invest.

To help get this program started, we ask you to take a quick survey:

Need more details? See below.

Oct 29 2019
Love0
Elkhart Housing Strategy

Elkhart deploying housing strategy to improve opportunities to gain more residents

By Elkhart, Featured News 6 Comments

Elkhart doesn’t lack for strengths.

With only 1.6 percent of Indiana’s population, the city makes up 3.4 percent of the state’s manufacturing output. One out of 45 jobs in Indiana is in Elkhart.

Elkhart is a powerful economic engine, but one of its components is in need of repair: housing. The good news? The fix is underway, with the State and Division neighborhood targeted as a pilot program for strategies for the rest of the city.

Elkhart Housing Strategy

Abby Wiles outlined a four-pronged approach to improved housing in Elkhart. It includes the housing supply, financials, education and outreach, and policy and regulations.

Proposals to address Elkhart’s housing shortage – and to boost the amount of affordable housing – were presented during a recent Vibrant Communities Community Champions Roundtable at the Roosevelt Center.

Vibrant Communities organizers are planning to focus attention on qualities that affect neighborhoods in 2020, including housing but also on things such as walkability and connectivity and amenities such as parks, green spaces and gathering places.

A study done by enFocus Inc., in partnership with the Elkhart Redevelopment Commission, concluded that there is a nearly 5,000-unit housing deficit in the city of Elkhart. Also reported at the roundtable was that 64 percent of Elkhart’s workforce commutes in from outside the area. That’s a constraint on the local economy.

“This all presents a lost opportunity,” said Abby Wiles, Elkhart’s assistant director of community and redevelopment.

Wiles outlined a four-pronged approach to improved housing in Elkhart. It includes the housing supply, financials, education and outreach, and policy and regulations.

“We need to make development easy,” she said.

For the full Elkhart housing study and a comprehensive list of recommendations, visit elkhartindiana.org/housingstrategy.

The next Community Champions Roundtable, tentatively planned for February 2020, will continue the discussion on housing and neighborhoods with a look at a nearby case study in South Bend.

Oct 01 2019
Love0
Excellence shines through in each of Elkhart County’s schools

Excellence shines through in each of Elkhart County’s schools

By Countywide, Elkhart, Featured News, Goshen, Middlebury & Bristol, Nappanee & Wakarusa No Comments

Next-level learning. Skills training. Planning for the future. Community involvement. Innovation.

All are hallmarks of the school districts in Elkhart County. Community leaders have made education a top priority here – and it shows.

Goshen Community Schools is home to an International Baccalaureate program of advanced study. The program was implemented in 2008. In addition to educational benefits, there’s also a potential dollars-and-cents incentive – many colleges offer credit for IB courses taken in high school.

Fairfield Community Schools offers a host of vocational programs, including cosmetology, building trades, health services, agricultural sciences, tool and die, auto mechanics, welding, and others. At Fairfield, graduating seniors have the opportunity to walk out of school and into a rewarding job right away.

Elkhart Community Schools offers the Elkhart Culture Series, a program designed to engage students and community members in cultural experiences and opportunities. Special guests have included an original Freedom Rider, a Holocaust survivor, and a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide.

Wa-Nee Community Schools is part of a local campaign called WaNee Vision 2020. The project is a joint collaboration between the city of Nappanee, The Boys & Girls Clubs of Elkhart County, Wa-Nee Community Schools, Family Christian Development Center, and Elder Haus Senior Center of Nappanee, with support from the Town of Wakarusa. The goal is to create a better community for people of all ages.

At Middlebury Community Schools, officials recently broke ground on a $15 million athletics complex on the Northridge High School campus. The facility will have baseball, softball, and football fields. Also at MCS: Northridge Middle School is a School to Watch, a designation earned from the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades.

At Concord Community Schools, work is underway on the College and Career Readiness addition at Concord High School. According to the Concord Connection, the wing will include five new classrooms, including an updated functional skills space, a “dirty lab” where students can learn mechanical skills, and a “clean lab” complete with 3D printers and tabletop CNC equipment. Other projects underway at Concord Community Schools include the 10,000-square-foot Concord Fitness and Performance Center, as well as the MOVE UP Academy, a virtual learning program.

Last fall at Baugo Community Schools, all kindergartners and first- and second-graders at Jimtown Elementary School visited Bethel College. According to WNDU, it was part of an awareness push to prepare students to open a 529 account to save for college.

Thank you, Elkhart County schools, for all you do to educate the leaders of tomorrow!

Excellence shines through in each of Elkhart County’s schools
Excellence shines through in each of Elkhart County’s schools

Thank you, Elkhart County schools, for all you do to educate the leaders of tomorrow!

Sep 19 2019
Love0
Goshen Theater, Goshen, Indiana

Goshen Theater getting ready to raise the curtain on its comeback

By Featured News, Goshen No Comments

In the heart of Goshen, a downtown treasure is getting ready for its next act.

Thanks to a mix of public and private funding, a major renovation is happening at the historic Goshen Theater, 216 S. Main St. In a nod to the theater’s longevity – and with an eye toward the future – the marquee reads, “When you’re 112 you’ll need a facelift, too.”

The work continues. This summer, crews started clearing the theater lobby and two other storefronts to make way for a larger lobby. Demolition began in the basement for the addition of modern restrooms, and excavating for an elevator shaft got underway. Digging the pit for a new elevator involved moving 25,000 pounds of dirt. Fun fact: Demolition work in the basement uncovered a storefront for a shoe repair shop!

Thanks to a committed group of people with both a love of history and a plan for the future, The Goshen Theater will soon begin its next stage of life. The Maple City landmark will be a community gathering space, an entertainment venue, and a cultural, educational, and commercial hub – all in one!

Goshen Theater is tentatively scheduled to reopen in March 2020

Goshen Theater is tentatively scheduled to reopen in March 2020. For more information or to donate to the ongoing theater project, visit goshentheater.com

The venue’s origins date back to 1905; the official dedication of the Jefferson Theater took place Nov. 5 that year.

“Indiana has many splendid cities, many splendid communities and many splendid buildings, but no city the size of Goshen has so splendid a playhouse,” Indiana’s governor said during the grand debut.

Fire destroyed the theater a little more than a year later. However, the rebuilt Jefferson re-opened with another packed house on Oct. 10, 1907. As part of an extensive remodeling, the theater was renamed The Goshen Theater in 1948.

After a successful multi-decade run, the theater hit a rough financial patch and closed in the mid-’80s. Heavy metal aficionados of a certain age will recall the theater’s short life as a concert venue around that time (We’re looking at you, Quiet Riot with special guest Poison). From 1987 to 2013, the theater was used as a church meeting space.

Sad to say, but the theater had become a shadow of its former self. That was about to change.

Goshen Theater Inc. (GTI), a non-profit with the goal of a revitalized theater, was formed in 2012. GTI later purchased the building and conducted a feasibility study. Significant upgrades – including a new screen, upgraded rigging, HVAC repairs, and interior sewer replacement – were made.

The current renovation work is expected to take the theater to the next level as a community space.

We can’t wait to see what happens next.

Goshen Theater is tentatively scheduled to reopen in March 2020. For more information or to donate to the ongoing theater project, visit goshentheater.com.

Aug 14 2019
Love0

Pumpkinvine Nature Trail keeps getting bigger

By Countywide, Featured News, Goshen, Middlebury & Bristol No Comments

The following is reprinted with permission from the August 2019 issue of the Pumpkinvine Trail Talk newsletter.

After significant delays in construction due to an unusually rainy spring, the new section of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail between County Road 33 and County Road 20 finally opened for riding on June 15, the day of the Pumpkinvine Bike Ride.

“Pulver Construction worked till 8 p.m. on June 14 to finish putting a coat of asphalt on top of the base coat of asphalt to meet the promised deadline of being done in time for the bike ride,” said Bernie Cunningham of Elkhart County Parks.

Riders round a corner of a new section of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail. (Photo Courtesy of Friends of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail)

Riders who used the new section were pleased with the results, which goes east on the old Pumpkinvine railroad corridor for a third of a mile before turning north through open pasture along the south fork of Pine Creek, then turns east to parallel County Road 20 for a half mile.

One benefit of the new route is that it eliminates major hills on County Road 33 and County Road 20.

 

Aug 09 2019
Love0

Stage, cafe highlight proposed improvements to Elkhart’s Central Park

By Elkhart, Featured News 4 Comments

The crowd spreads their blankets on the wide terraces in front of the new Central Park stage. As the band sets up for their show, enticing smells waft from the food trucks lined up on Waterfall Drive. As the Central Park lawn fills up, more people gather in the shade of trees lining High Street and on the patio of the new cafe.

This scene of a beautiful summer evening has been brought to you by the designers of a proposed renovation of downtown Elkhart’s Central Park.

The design concepts were presented in early July. Now residents of Elkhart can offer their feedback on the project’s website (click on the Contact button to leave a comment).

Elkhart residents review proposed changes to Elkhart’s Central Park at a public event July 3, 2019.

The designs by Rundell Ernstberger Associates were influenced by public comments made at sessions in fall 2018 to identify what improvements Elkhart residents wanted to Central Park and Civic Plaza. Features of the proposed changes include:

  • A stage in Central Park near the corner of High Street and Waterfall Drive.
  • The stage faces a terraced green space that has three tiers.
  • A shaded area lining High Street equipped with cafe tables and chairs that could be blocked off for special events.
  • A stand-alone building featuring a cafe with indoor/outdoor seating, and separate restrooms.
  • Waterfall Drive is designed to be shut down for food trucks or other vendors during events, and open to traffic at other times.

The proposed renovations will be considered by the Elkhart Redevelopment Commission sometime in fall 2019.

Jul 31 2019
Love1

Just how vibrant are we? Research setting baseline for Elkhart County

By Countywide, Elkhart, Featured News, Goshen, Middlebury & Bristol, Nappanee & Wakarusa No Comments

Building vibrant communities in Elkhart County has always been the ongoing goal, but it’s challenging to know how you’re doing when you’re not sure where you started.

With that question as a backdrop, more than 50 community leaders from Elkhart County’s business, non-profit, municipal and community development realms met on Thursday, July 25, to hear more about how to, well, measure vibrancy.

The setting for the discussion was a community room in the sprawling 171,000-square-foot Elkhart Health & Aquatics Center, one of the largest projects listed in Vibrant Communities’ Action Agenda assembled in 2016.

And with more projects being completed and momentum building in Elkhart, Goshen, Nappanee, Middlebury, Bristol and Wakarusa, it was time for the Vibrant Communities movement to define how it would keep track of vibrancy.

How to measure vibrancy was the topic of the day at a Community Champions Roundtable on Thursday, July 25, 2019, at the Elkhart Health & Aquatics Center.

Working with Indiana University South Bend’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Vibrant Communities organizers developed a survey of Elkhart County residents as well as the gathering of demographic data about the community.

The data includes everything from economic performance measures to educational attainment, health factors, crime and safety, and housing. That will be matched with the results of a survey in which Elkhart County residents are asked to rank the area on topics such as community pride, social offerings such as arts and culture and parks, and openness of residents to others.

  • Marshall V. King, a free-lance journalist who wrote the Love Where You Live series for Vibrant Communities in 2018, attended the gathering and wrote a column for the South Bend Tribune. Read Marshall’s thoughts on the metrics.

The survey so far has 371 results from 4,000 sent to randomly selected addresses in Elkhart County. While that number of survey results gives a good baseline, IUSB researchers intend to review the demographics of the respondents and fill in gaps that may exist to assure that the survey sample is representative of Elkhart County’s population.

By sometime this fall, it’s expected for the data and survey results to be available on the Vibrant Communities website.

Educate. Advocate. Celebrate.

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