City officials are making another attempt to secure a grant to revitalize a downtown park.
On Monday, the Seymour City Council committed $450,000 toward a matching grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs to improve One Chamber Square. The money would come from TIF and EDIT tax money, a $10,000 donation from the Community Foundation of Jackson County and $5,000 from Seymour Main Street.
The grant would provide $590,000 in additional funding from OCRA and make improvements to the park. The price tag for the whole project is just more than $1 million.
The city was not selected for the fall round of Community Development Block Grant funding, but officials are hopeful to be selected the next round and plan to submit the project by Friday’s deadline. Officials would be notified in January if the project receives funding, and construction would begin next summer.
A preliminary concept plan from HWC Engineering shows added elements, including porch swings, interactive art, musical features for children, tables and chairs and other architectural and landscaping features.
One of the most important aspects of the project is making the area compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The current design of One Chamber Square has picnic tables set up in a pit area with concrete steps on the west and north sides but no ramp.
That pit would be filled in and made flat, and curbless street design would be implemented, similar to Fourth Street in Columbus. Parking along the south side of St. Louis Avenue would change from parallel to angle parking.
Another major piece is a pedestrian crossing from Jeffersonville Avenue over the Louisville & Indiana Railroad into the new Crossroads Community Park on the east side of the tracks. The area was on spotlight over the weekend during the Home for the Holidays event.
Anthony Walker, a member of the Seymour Main Street board of directors, said he attended the event and noticed the need for a better way to cross the railroad to get to the park.
“The event was nice, but one problem was the transition to the One Chamber Square area to the park,” he said. “It would be nice to get that all figured out to make a new transition.”
The city council’s move required a public hearing, in which several people spoke in favor of the project. No one spoke against it, and the council unanimously supported the effort.
The effort gained additional support when Councilman Shawn Malone voted for the measure. He voted against it in a previous meeting citing concerns with other projects that needed completed.
Grant writer Trena Carter with Administrative Resources association said a survey about the project drew 361 responses with 88 percent of those by Seymour residents. She did not have a breakdown of the responses but told council members the majority of respondents showed support.
Tricia Bechman, president of the Greater Seymour Chamber of Commerce, spoke in favor of the project and said she appreciated the variety it offered. She said One Chamber Square gets most of its use from the chamber’s lunch picnics in the summertime, but the organization only has 12 each year.
“It would offer a gathering place, and I look forward to how it will enhance the area,” she said.