WARSAW — Kosciusko County has joined the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership in what Mark Dobson and other local officials hope is a step toward obtaining project funding.

Earlier this year, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the Regional Cities initiative in response to concerns about population stagnation in the state of Indiana. The idea behind the initiative is to retain local talent while attracting new.

According to Dobson, a total of $84 million in grant funding is available and will be divided evenly between two winning regions. These regions will be selected based on a detailed application process that includes outlining various local quality-of-life projects cities and counties in those regions would like to complete.

“Suppose the 11 counties in the Northeast District do win,” Dobson said. “They then have to take the project list. They have to look at the projects that won and make sure that the projects can be taken to completion, are adequately funded and can happen in a reasonably quick time frame.”

Because of its location, Kosciusko County had the option to join either the Northern Indiana Regional Partnership or the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership. However, each county is permitted to join only one. In order to determine which would be most suitable, a local task force sent out surveys to gather data.

“We took a look at a variety of factors that could potentially influence which RDA Kosciusko County should join,” Dobson said. “Commerce patterns, preferences of businesses in terms of where they draw their workforce, where they receive supplies, where they sell their goods, a variety of factors that were all put together and analyzed. Ultimately, the resolution came out favoring the Northeast region.”

Kosciusko County’s task force consists of representatives from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, county and municipal government leaders, Orthoworx of Indiana, the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and members of the local business community.

Examples of projects in the Northeast Region include a Rails to Trails project in a four-county region, an application for a trail project in Syracuse, trails in Warsaw and an expansion of the Wagon Wheel Theatre, which falls under the arts and culture portion of the application.

As far as community development projects, Warsaw submitted items like the North Buffalo Street project and Market Street corridor work.

Dobson was quick to point out that joining the Northeastern RDA was for the Regional Cities program only and that Kosciusko County has no intention of severing relations with other areas.

“Our decision for this project was specific to the Regional Cities only. We still have a lot of opportunities to work with our friends in Elkhart, St. Joe and Marshall Counties,” Dobson said.

Click here to learn more about the Northeast Region.