Abington Township needs Wayne County government’s assistance as it pursues funding for a new fire station and community center.
Trustee Steven Kaiser and Mike Taylor, chief of the township’s volunteer fire department, presented the project’s progress to Wayne County’s commissioners during the Jan. 15 commissioners meeting. The county has four slots — increased from the previous three — to pursue grant funding from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, and Abington Township requests one be allocated for its project.
Counties, cities and towns are provided the OCRA slots; however, townships are not. That’s why Abington Township needs the county’s help.
Kaiser said reality has scaled the project into two phases. The first would be a new fire station, then the township would continue work toward the community center. The fire station is a priority because the county has placed an unsafe building order on the current undersized station.
With preliminary drawings in hand, Kaiser said it’s believed the fire station could be built for less than a million dollars. The next hurdle is freeing about $70,000 for blueprints.
Kaiser said the community center would become a space for residents to gather and would provide an essential tornado shelter because half the township’s residents do not have basements. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay for the concrete to create a shelter.
Commissioners said they would support providing the township with an OCRA grant slot as long as there’s a high probability the township would have the other finances necessary for the fire station. Kaiser said he’s comfortable that will happen.
“We’ve got a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not a freight train,” he said.
Hagerstown and EDC
Hagerstown has submitted a two-year contract for providing half of its economic development income tax dollars to the countywide consolidated EDIT fund that’s used to pay Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County operating expenses and to fund EDC projects.
Consolidated EDIT was established with four-year contracts that enable each town or city elected official to help determine consolidated EDIT participation during a term. Commissioners are not inclined to shorten the contract length for Hagerstown.
Commissioners did not vote to turn down Hagerstown’s two-year contract because Brad Dwenger and Aaron Roberts asked for time to discuss with Hagerstown council members their reasons for limiting the contract’s length. Two new members joined Hagerstown’s town council this year.
Commissioner Jeff Plasterer, who opposes the two-year contract, said consolidated EDIT’s intent is to better the economy of Wayne County as a whole, not ensure each participating community receives the value of its contribution back in projects for that entity. He pointed to the EDC’s current efforts with three companies that list Wayne County as a location finalist as an example of that theory.
Commissioners expect to vote on the two-year contract during the Jan. 22 meeting.
A version of this article appeared in the January 22 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.