Study Tasks
Weekly Update #215 3/3/2024 to 3/9/2024
It seems recently the work of area residents with the Brookings Institute on the Burkart Opportunity Zone has sparked some conversations. From some of the screen shots I have received I would guess most haven’t taken the time to read the almost 70-page report located on the homepage of the Seymour website. Today though, I will dedicate the entire weekly update to this report.
In a partnership with Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Seymour, Michigan City, and Warsaw participated with Local Initiative Support Corporation and The Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking via Brookings in working on this study for a little over a year. When asked “Why Seymour?” Vincent Ash from IEDC responded with “Seymour always has something good going on, and we wanted to help continue that momentum with this investment.” Along the way’ around 80 different individuals were part of the conversation via different groups. Over the next few paragraphs, I will try to break down the 13 tasks 18 different organizations are working on since the study was released around six months ago.
Task section 1 is related to workforce and business. 1.1 has already begun with the addition of Vincennes University’s Industrial Maintenance program at the Jackson County Learning Center. To date, they have already had a few groups graduate with new ones and new expansions coming along for the future. Spark Jackson County is working under task 1.2.
Jump to section 2 for immigrant related items. 2.1 is being worked on by Su Casa and Jackson County United Way and looks to improve engagement and outreach through the Vecina program with Su Casa. 2.2 has several organizations already working on improving multilingual communications via English Language Learner classes and more. 2.3 is being tackled with the Parks Department via the efforts to develop a food forest on some property near Burkart and South O’Brien.
Connecting people to work and play is a part of tasks 3.1 and 3.2. Work has already taken place to fill gaps in the trail system over the last six months. A new parks Master Plan is scheduled to start in around a year to update the most recent plan adopted in 2021.
Affordable living options are part of the task in section four. Improving residential and apartment conditions have always been on our radar, and 4.1 continues to keep them there for our community. 4.2 is one of two sections working to fill the housing shortage here in Seymour. This section and section 5.1 are both very dependent on private investment and possibly the hardest to tackle.
Jumping to section five, you will find 5.1 is the upper end scale of the full range of housing options started in task 4.1. Again this section is very dependent on private investment and will take time to get all the pieces in place to accomplish. Quicker than that though, we can work with local realtors and banks to help first time home buyers achieve their dreams of home ownership here in our community.
As part of ongoing conversations, section six takes on a couple of big questions regarding a new indoor recreation facility and creating third spaces through creative placemaking for community members to enjoy. This section has six different community organizations listed as implementers who will try to help make it a reality.
This is a very quick summary of an almost 70 page document that took over a year and more people than pages to develop. In it, you have seen a glimpse of the 13 tasks which about 23% of are connected to immigrants which happens to almost mirror the percentage of our population that are not caucasian. All of the tasks are trying to improve our community for everyone to enjoy for generations to come. Before I go though, I would like to share a quote from Mark Twain that came to mind as I have read what appears to be a fear of change in some of our residents’ comments, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it."