June 15, 2011
06/16/11 Although the sun wasn’t shinning and the rain was coming down there were lots of smiles as a couple dozen people crowed under some awnings for the ground breaking ceremony for the Community Resource Center.
Rev. Ronald Liechty, President of the Board of Directors said, “I’ve been told, to start a project in the rain is good luck.” He also spoke about a breakfast meeting he had with Dr. Kent Guild in 1985. They were both graduates of DePauw University. During that get-to-gather the idea of a common building for social and caring agencies came up. Liechty said, “26 years later we are breaking ground.” He also noted that Guild had passed away 4 years ago but his wife Judy and daughter Sarah Smith were on hand for the celebration.
Several people spoke include Hodge Patel from Congressman Donnelly’s Office. He noted that federal stimulus in the project and said, “The County is getting $2.39 million in tax dollars coming back to the community and an additional $300,000 additional federal funding.
Rochelle Owen, for the USDA Indiana Rural Development program talked about the difficult times the country has been going through and said, “This project invests in our future and the citizens of Marshall County’s future. She also noted the joint private public partnership made this project a success.
Mayor Mark Senter commented, “The CRC (Community Resource Center) is a part of the T-squared initiative. This is the second project down, it time to look to the future for another project.”
CB Richard Ellis of South Bend the leasing agent for the project has been meeting with agencies and announced the agencies who have committed to relocating to the CRC. They include: WIC, Work One, the Marshall County Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Together, the Division of Family Resources, Center Township Trustee, and REAL Services. It was noted that there are a few spaces still available from 300 square feet to a couple thousand square feet. It was noted that they are negotiating with a couple agencies and it is hoped that by the ribbon cutting the facility will be full.
Architect for the project, Brent Martin has been involved for 5 years. The two-story, steel-frame, masonry building has a foot-print of 10,000 square feet in the basement for a total of 20,000 square feet of space. The agencies will have some common spaces and shared staff to help them operate more efficiently. He continued by saying, “Construction will start this week and construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2012.”