Wabash County aims to continue ‘Stellar’ reputation with regional win
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In 2014, the city of Wabash was named a Stellar Community designee by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
A decade later, the program has been rebranded to Stellar Pathways, and Wabash County is one of four finalists vying for a share of $13 million to fund a variety of community development projects.
Grow Wabash County President and CEO Tenille Zartman says the county wants to build on the success of the Stellar win 10 years ago.
Zartman told Inside INdiana Business the county as a whole started coming together in 2019 to address what she said is one of the region’s greatest threats: population decline.
“Our first-ever countywide [Imagine One 85] comprehensive plan got adopted a couple years ago. That identified a lot of really great projects that we think will be pivotal in helping us grow our populations,” she said. “I think being a Stellar winner will give us the resources and the credibility to continue to move that forward so we can no longer say we’re in decline but that we’re actually on that upward growth momentum.”
The Wabash County region includes Wabash County itself, the cities of Wabash and North Manchester, and the towns of Roann, LaFontaine and Lagro.
Zartman said the established collaboration among the communities is what helped Wabash County get selected as a Stellar finalist.
“We are already around the table. Our community partners come together once a month to try and tackle big picture projects,” she said. “So when the Stellar Pathways program was presented and we asked, ‘Okay, do we want to go after this as a region?’ All hands went up, and it took five seconds to get everyone on board; we were already in that collaborative spirit. So I think that really shone through on our application.”
The Stellar finalists are each receiving $50,000 to develop their final strategic investment plans. Zartman said while specific projects haven’t been nailed down just yet, they could involve infrastructure, downtown development, riverfront and park development, and streetscapes, among others.
“The Stellar Strategic Investment Plan will allow us to advance projects and programs, founded through the work of Imagine One 85, and prepare a compelling case for why Wabash County should be awarded the Stellar Pathways Designation and receive the resources that accompany it to implement large scale initiatives moving our community forward,” Imagine One 85 Director Alex Downard said in written remarks.
The other finalists include Connect LaGrange County, One Dearborn County, and Warren County region. The strategic investment plans will be submitted by Nov. 1, and the two winners will be announced in January.
“We’re going to work really hard over the next few months,” Zartman said. “We’re going to start getting together weekly to really kick off the process and really start the brainstorming. So I think you’re gonna see a really strong proposal coming out of Wabash County.”