A grant request to expand the types of classes offered at the Jackson County Learning Center in Seymour totals $1.84 million.
Jim Plump with the South Central Indiana READI team said he anticipates receiving $240,000 from the READI grant, and that requires a match of public and private dollars.
During a recent meeting, he asked the Seymour Redevelopment Commission to consider matching the $240,000 in 2022 and 2023 for a total of $480,000 to get a 2-to-1 match. The balance will come from private sources, mainly area industries that would utilize the education and training courses, Plump said.
“That would be just a touch over $1.1 million,” he said.
Plump
The commission’s portion could come out of the technology fund established when Seymour was granted a certified technology park in 2012 as a result of Cummins Inc.’s Hedgehog project. Plump said that certification was renewed in 2016 and 2020.
“Initially when this legislation was passed, communities were allowed to capture $5 million, at which point the program was over,” he said. “We felt all along that there might be more down the road. That’s why we continued to renew.”
In 2020, the Indiana General Assembly said any certified technology park that hit its lifetime cap of $5 million could capture an additional $100,000 per year in incremental tax revenue as long as it maintains its certification through Indiana Economic Development Corp.
As of December 2021, Plump said the local technology fund balance was $619,445.
“The uses of these funds are very limited and have to be spent within the certified tech park, and so what we did in 2016, we expanded the boundaries of the certified tech park, which initially just included the Cummins campus, to include the learning center, thinking something may be coming on down the road,” he said.
“When you look at a local match through the READI grant to boost the opportunity to get area industry to put in the balance, personally, I think it’s a no-brainer,” he added. “What else are you going to use the money for?”
The Jackson County Learning Center is at 323 Dupont Drive, Seymour.
Tribune file photo
Mark Dennis, president of the redevelopment commission, asked Plump how he would characterize the support of local industry in the class expansion proposal and utilization of the learning center.
“An easy answer is ‘very good,’” Plump said. “We have had a series of meetings with a number of our companies, and we’re kind of pulling together that in July, we hope to get those firm commitments from the industries.”
The money would be used for equipment, classrooms and instructors for the classes.
Plump said many companies need maintenance workers, so that could be one of the class offerings.
“We have a provider that is very, very good in maintenance classes, and so they have met with the companies to find out exactly what they need,” he said. “The idea would be these companies would support this by sending their employees to (the classes), and that would again begin the process. The upfront money we’re looking for would be to add some of the equipment, pay instructors, what would be needed.”
While the READI grant would be one-time, funding from the redevelopment commission and industries could be sustaining, Plump said.
“We don’t know what this will look like going forward as it relates to redevelopment. Possibly no more money would ever be needed from redevelopment once we got the equipment, once we got the classes, we got things set up,” he said. “Then it would be sustained ongoing by the industries.”
As of now, Plump said there’s no physical expansion needed for the learning center building at 323 Dupont Drive.
“I think the facility is well utilized. Is it near capacity? No,” he said. “Putting (the new classes) in place would take it closer to capacity, but still, you’re not requiring brick and mortar at this point, only educational-related. They do have capacity out there for classes.”
Plump said he plans to present a formal request to the redevelopment commission at its next meeting, set for 4 p.m. July 25 in the council chambers at Seymour City Hall.
“I think for me personally, I’m in support of it, but I’d like to see it written up a little more formally, give us a chance to ask questions specifically about the things that concern us outside of the meeting so we can come in the meeting prepared to discuss it,” Dennis said.
Commission member Nate Tormoehlen agreed, noting he would like to see commitments from industries. Plump said the public and private matches are required for the project to go forward.