City will ask for $5.3 million in Regional Cities funding for riverside park

By Bob Caylor | News-Sentinel

The city of Fort Wayne is scheduled to make a pitch for about 20 percent of the cost of its riverfront park Tuesday afternoon.

If the northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority agrees, its members can recommend that $5.3 million in Regional City funding from the state be contributed to the work.

The request from the Fort Wayne Department of Parks and Recreation shares the agenda with the most requests scheduled for any meeting of this area’s RDA so far. Proponents for six other projects from across the region also are scheduled to make their cases for funding when the RDA’s board meets at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Sylvan Cellars Event Center in Rome City.

Only last week, the city of Fort Wayne announced that it had reached a settlement with property owners who were resisting selling their land in the riverfront park area. Also last week, the Parks Department board approved a plan for providing recognition for donors – including naming rights for the largest donations.

The Parks Department is scheduled to ask for $5,276,000 toward the total project cost of $26,381,000 for the 2-acre riverside park, preliminarily dubbed “Promenade Park.” The hub for planned downtown riverfront development will be this park on the south side of the St. Marys River bounded by Harrison Street on the east, Superior Street on the south and the historic Wells Street bridge on the west.

Plans call for the riverside park to be completed by late 2018.

Other new requests for funding that project sponsors will discuss before the board on Tuesday include:

• The Eagles Theatre project in Wabash, sponsored by the Honeywell Foundation, is seeking $996,567 toward a total project cost of $4,982,838.
• Wabash Trails, through its sponsor Wabash River Trail Inc. is scheduled to request $960,236 toward a project cost of $4,801,180. Wabash River Trail Inc. aims eventually to link Huntington, Wabash and Peru through a 33-mile trail.
• The city of Columbia City is requesting $861,304 toward a total project cost of $4,258,751 to be used for the Russel and Evelyn Fahl Aquatics Facility.
• The city of Ligonier will ask $254,000 for Strawberry Valley Cultural Trail toward a total project cost of $1,270,175.
• Noble Trails Inc. will seek $175,000 for Fishing Line Trail, which has an estimated total cost of $1,023,673.
• The Kendallville Parks and Recreation Department will ask for $400,000 for the Kendallville Outdoor Recreation Center. The total cost of that project is listed as $2,388,132.