Henry County says Ready2 precommitment, Memorial Park grant clear path to infrastructure for new housing

Corey Murphy updated the Henry County Council on a set of housing and community-infrastructure initiatives the county is advancing with state and local partners.

Murphy said the county used American Rescue Plan Act money to market the county to remote workers and to create incentives for people who move to Henry County for new local jobs. “The minimum threshold that the remote worker program has had all along … was the position needs to pay at least $50,000 a year,” Murphy said, describing the program's eligibility criteria as coming from the county's ARP-backed marketing effort.

Murphy said the Ashbury Fields development recently closed its bond financing and will add about 65 homes; he described a separate Ready2 project that now concentrates on a Washington Street site near the elementary school and Osborne Park. “We received a pre commitment letter from the state of Indiana on the Ready2 funds,” Murphy said, adding that the pre-commitment strengthens the county's capital stack for borrowing for public infrastructure (water and sewer) that the builder will use to support home construction.

On the Ready2 housing component, Murphy said a national homebuilder—still negotiating confidentially with local government—indicated it could construct roughly 85 homes over about three years on the Washington Street location and that the county's role is to provide the public infrastructure. “The homes are being taken care of by the builder as they are sold. When I'm talking about the project, I am talking about the public infrastructure that provides the foundation to build the homes,” Murphy said.

Murphy also reported a separate Ready2-funded infrastructure application tied to Memorial Park. He said a 4-H-affiliated group wrote the application and it was recommended for $500,000. The council previously voted to match that award with approximately $1.6 million in local funds, and Murphy said he expects formal precommitment letters within weeks. “Once we get the pre commitment on the Memorial Park infrastructure, I will engage United Consulting. We already have a contract. That will trigger my request for food and beverage money,” Murphy said, explaining the expected sequence (design, bid, construction).

Murphy said the county will use the food-and-beverage allocation to pay engineering and consulting drawdowns early in the project schedule and expects to begin design work in the fall with construction targeted for the following year. He noted the county already owns right-of-way and land for the Memorial Park infrastructure, which he said should expedite construction.

Council members asked whether the food-and-beverage fund could cover the drawdown schedule and whether prior commitments left sufficient balance to fund new projects. Murphy and staff cautioned that Ready2 pre-commitments are positive but not final and that monthly food-and-beverage receivables currently cover debt service and reserve requirements before additional distributions can be made.

What happened next: the council did not take a formal vote on any Ready2 or Memorial Park funding at this meeting; Murphy said he would return with contract requests tied to design and construction drawdowns when the pre-commitment letters and consulting scopes are ready.

Why it matters: the Ready2 pre-commitment and the recommended Memorial Park award, if finalized, would unlock state funding and local match to build the water and sewer infrastructure a builder says it needs to place hundreds of homes on two development sites. The projects also rely on the county's constrained food-and-beverage receipts to pay early professional fees before construction funds become available.