HYMERA, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– The town of Hymera received a $514,000 grant from the state to complete a series of projects along Vine Street, near Northeast East Elementary School.
Facilities manager Nick Cullison said the town will also contribute an additional $170,000 to help repair the street, widen the sidewalks so they are accessible by wheelchair and add a school crossing. But he said it’s not the first time they’ve pursued this project through the program.
“We applied for this in January of 2022, and we received the money, but the problem was, at the time the bid package came in, we were caught in inflation,” he said. “Therefore, we could not exceed the amount of money that we had, so we had to send that money back to the state, and then reapply.”
They received about $200,000 more from the state, which Cullison is confident will be enough to cover the project. Still, he said the delay was a tough pill to swallow for the community.
“It’s very frustrating because it set our community back a year of progress,” he said. “But then again, we know that this is really the only opportunity we’re going to get through INDOT, the assistance with this, and being a recipient and getting this much grant match money to do a project of this size in this inflation.”
Cullison said he was grateful for the program, which allows smaller communities to fund bigger projects.
“[Without community crossings], We wouldn’t be able to do these projects. None of us would be able to do them,” he said. “This is something, if we couldn’t get it done this way, we would never be able to fund, especially the way inflation is now.”
Cullison said he hopes to get bids on the project in the first three months of 2023, and that construction would start sometime in the Spring. He said he’s looking forward to the day this project could be in the rearview mirror.
“It’s just a long overdue project,” he said. “We feel if we didn’t push this project now, we probably wouldn’t see it done.”
