Host Joe Hren sat down with Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray at city hall who gave us an update on downtown road construction projects, the deal that will re-open the Humane Society of Putnam County and details of how a vacant school house will be turned into senior living apartments.
Listen to their full conversation above. Here are some highlights:
Hren: The Humane Society of Putnam County reached an agreement with the county to fund and operate the animal shelter which has been closed for two years, did the city have any input on opening the shelter again?
Murray: From the city's perspective, it is something we feel strongly about - making a financial commitment to help to support and so through use of our EDIT fund, we have $10,000 a year that we earmark for contribution for what we're able to use the humane society for and help with animal control for our officers within the city.
Hren: There's been further development in downtown parking lot construction. Parking garage bids came in too high so funds have been finalized to build two downtown parking lots?
Murray: The attractive part of that is not only is it a cost savings, but what it does is ties in our storm water system on some of the INDOT work we're doing this year and next year. As frustrated as we've been with the parking issue, I think we finally have a great viable solution and later this month we'll be opening up bids.
Hren: Funds for a loan to renovate a vacant school into senior living apartments have been approved, how long has this been in the works?
Murray: It's been in the works for about a year and a half. We had four different proposals and all came back as senior living units which has been established as a need in our community. Most certainly the location is most wonderful for anybody who enjoys the parks system, it also is virtually at the entrance of Depauw University. We did select Milestone Ventures, they talked about putting in 33 units by the fall of 2015.
