Park board approves support letter for REDI 2 water‑and‑sewer application at Memorial Park

The Henry County Park Board voted to provide a letter of support for a REDI 2 grant application seeking funding for a water and sewer project serving Memorial Park and the Expo 4‑H center.

Corey Murphy, a representative of the East Central Indiana Economic Development Corporation, told the board that the region received $4 million in REDI 2 funds and that, after a regional scoring and selection process, one local project awarded $500,000 was a water‑and‑sewer project tied to the 4‑H center application. "REDI is a state program. There's been 2 rounds of REDI. I am talking about REDI 2 here," Murphy said, describing the regional call for projects and the multi‑stage review process.

Murphy said the county council committed $1.6 million in food‑and‑beverage funds as part of the local match. He also described a professional‑services agreement the county approved with United Consulting for engineering work and said surveying would be scheduled only after the board, the expo, city utilities and the engineer agree on pipe routing so the survey is done once. "We only wanna pay for that one time," Murphy said.

A board member moved that the board support the letter and volunteer to work with Brianna and Duke to wordsmith it; the motion was seconded and approved. Brianna will finalize the draft and send it to Duke for submission. The motion record in the meeting is procedural: the chair asked "All in favor? Aye," and the chair confirmed "Nobody opposed, motion passes." The meeting transcript does not list individual vote tallies.

Why it matters: the REDI 2 program channels state REDI funds through regional administrators; local letters of support were requested to answer state follow‑up questions and strengthen the project’s compliance answers. If fully approved, the project would extend water and sewer infrastructure to serve the Expo/4‑H center area; local match funding has already been identified.

Next steps: staff and the expo representatives will finalize the support letter, coordinate any additional documentation requested by the state, and—if the project receives final approval—invite representatives from county utilities, the expo, the commissioners and the engineers to a sit‑down to finalize the pipe routing and surveying schedule.