Evansville center gets grant
To get involved
To learn more or to donate to Creekside Place, call (608) 882-0407 or visit creeksideplace.org.
Photo 
Mary Libby
EVANSVILLE — Mary Libby had to sit down when she got the phone call from the state Department of Commerce.
“I had to sit down and ask the lady for her phone number just in case I got the message mixed up (because) I was so flustered,” she said with a laugh.
The state official told her a $500,000 grant was headed for Evansville’s planned community and senior center. That grant leaves Creekside Place’s $2.5 million fundraising effort just $360,000 short of its goal, said Libby, president of Creekside’s board.
It also means the project will break ground on the 10,000-square-foot facility in mid- to late-September, with completion in spring, she said.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced the $500,000 community development block grant for Creekside Place on Thursday.
Fundraisers will be knocking on doors and calling every possible prospect to raise the final $360,000 so the project is “shovel-ready” in 60 days, which is required by the grant, Libby said.
When the non-profit organization applied for the $500,000 grant, members thought they would be “very, very lucky” if they got $350,000, she said.
When Libby was informed they received the full amount, she had to double check.
The state officials that reviewed the application said it was such a marvelous project for the Evansville, Libby said she was told.
The center will be built downtown at Maple and Church streets on an empty lot that the board bought more than a year ago.
“We’re thinking this project is really going to be a boost for the economy in Evansville,” Libby said.
Aside from daily activities, the hope is to use the building for weddings, funeral receptions, class reunions, showers and parties, she said. A local business is interested in having conventions there that otherwise have been held out of town, she said.
“Everybody will gain,” she said. “It’s going to be a win-win for the flower shop, grocery store, deli, sandwich shop (and) restaurants.
“It’s just something that Evansville has needed for so many years, and I really feel that we’re behind other communities in not having a community and senior center.”
Dave VanDerHaegen, executive director of Creekside Place, doesn’t want the building to be labeled as seniors-only or thought of as a community center where just kids are running around.
“It’s the center of the community where everybody will be able to come and meet,” he said.
VanDerHaegen started full time for Creekside at the end of June, he said, and plans call for expanding the part-time senior programming coordinator to full time.
Creekside will include seating for nearly 240 people in a large meeting room that could be divided into several rooms, he said. It also will have a kitchen, café area, sunroom and arts and crafts room, he said.
A wide variety of senior programming also will be offered. The current senior center is in a room at the back of Theodore Robinson Intermediate School.
“There are so many possibilities when we have our own space,” Libby said.
The $2.5 million fundraising campaign kicked off in March when private fundraising had already gathered $1.26 million.
Project costs are estimated at $2.16 million, with the remaining funds raised going to sustain the facility in the first few years, planners said.
“If this center takes off like we think it should and will, we think it’s going to make money,” Libby said.
Future plans call for adding an aquatic center and a workshop for the Woodchucks program.
Aug 1, 2010 at 3:03 p.m.
Suggest removal
If you build it, it will flood.
Aug 1, 2010 at 11:52 a.m.
Suggest removal
rodgersfan - The location, I think is great. If you look at the Baker Block parking and the school parking, this is an upgrade.
I know the names on the land deal and it probably does look questionable. BUT I know this land actually was purchased for a three or four way land deal, that didn't go through. Had it went thru, the City would have made out extremely well. Something about soil testing stopped the deal.
The majority of the Westside developments were rushed through without much question. There was plenty of money made by silent partnerships that approved those developments.
Jul 31, 2010 at 10:16 a.m.
Suggest removal
This is a state handbook, "Living in the Floodplain."
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/wm/dsfm/floo...
.
It details the requirements for new construction in a flood fringe, and the standards used in Wisconsin, such as that the lowest habitable floor be at a two-foot elevation above the regional flood elevation, and any structures have dry-land access (e.g. a driveway above the RFE). The idea is that the area around the building may get wet, but in a typical 1% annual flood situation the building itself will not. These requirements would not exist if building in a flood fringe were by itself as big a risk as you assume. Residential development is discouraged by these requirements but commercial development to modern standards is a sensible use of the land.
Jul 31, 2010 at 4:01 a.m.
Suggest removal
I have found there will be no basement. It will also be elevated will fill they bring in.
Time will tell.
Jul 31, 2010 at 3:44 a.m.
Suggest removal
Lets be clear, I do not believe this is only a senior center. They have been calling it a community center.
Key word here, community.
It does not have to go over the banks to 'flood.' Look at WestField Meadows those houses which are brand new 1*5 years, flood every year. Water in the basement every year, sump pumps running 8 months out of the year.
Is thing not going to have a basement? IF it does they will also have a pool, in this basement, one they did not plan on.
The location is horrible. Parking will be a mess.
Look at who brokered the deal for the land, and whose land it was. It is very odd they chose here.
But like was said before Evansville Contractors like building where it floods.
Jul 30, 2010 at 8:25 p.m.
Suggest removal
Rain water sits on it because it was never graded after the feed shop was taken down. When it was graded, there never was a problem. Heck, they wanted to build the fire station there, but the Fire Dept wanted more room.
Jul 30, 2010 at 8:23 p.m.
Suggest removal
This maybe labeled a flood area of some sorts, but in almost 20 years, I have NEVER seen that area flooded. There are houses that are on Maple street that are on lower grade, that have NEVER got water in them. And I have seen Lake Leota park almost COMPLETELY flooded while this area was not.
There was a business that stood on that same ground for YEARS and I don't remember water ever getting IN it. It may have come up onto the property, but never in it that I recall.
This is a huge step in the right direction. I remember the Senior Center being in the basement of Baker Block and that was a joke. BEST OF LUCK & CONGRATS TO EVANSVILLE FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN !!!
Jul 30, 2010 at 7:05 p.m.
Suggest removal
The question really would be why build a multi million dollar project where it has flooded before. There is no fringe to it, it flat out floods. Come by in the spring or after days and days of rain.
Jul 30, 2010 at 5:34 p.m.
Suggest removal
As I stated in the other thread, it is not in the floodway (red), it is in the flood fringe (orange), where development is allowed as long as meets standards. I don't know what specific standards apply within Evansville, but the city zoning regulations or building code would be a good place to start.
Jul 30, 2010 at 5:18 p.m.
Suggest removal
http://www.msc.fema.gov/webapp/wcs/store...
Click on the link to see they are building in a flood plain. Who the heck does that? I wonder what the Dept of Commerce will think when they find out the money is being used to build in a flood plain.
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.