WARSAW— Lt. Governor Eric Holcomb announced today, Aug. 11, that Rushville and Corydon are the 2016 Designees of the Stellar Communities Designation Program. Warsaw was the other finalist for the program, but did not receive the designee bid.

The program, launched in 2011, was designed to recognize Indiana’s smaller communities that have identified comprehensive community and economic development projects and activities as well as next steps and key partnerships.

“I was filled with such pride while visiting the six finalist communities this summer, seeing firsthand the passion and dedication each team is putting towards bettering their community through economic development opportunities,” said Lt. Governor Holcomb. “With or without the stellar designation, all six communities are on their way to achieving transformative outcomes that will better their local and regional areas.”

Leaders in both Warsaw and Winona Lake had been working very hard in the previous months to prepare for the designation. The preparation process included a large master plan, budgeting, site visits and a lot of teamwork between the communities.

“The City of Warsaw is very proud of the progress we have made leading up to and during the Stellar Process,” said Warsaw Mayor Joseph Thallemer. “We have solidified our partnership and collaboration with the Town of Winona Lake.  The community not only engaged but also demonstrated tremendous support for our plan.  We have benefited greatly from the Stellar process and will continue to move forward with the planning and collaboration to further the plan.”

The target area for the plans was the Market Street Neighborhood, including ten specific projects. If the community had won the designee, $6.5 million would have been available to the projects for the next five years.

Even though Warsaw didn’t win the designee for this program the Market Street Neighborhood may still see improvement in the upcoming years.

“We are going to do these projects anyway, but it would be really nice to have access to these funds,” said Thallemer during a meeting about the project in June.

There are alternative grants that the towns can apply to depending on the nature of the ten projects. The projects may also be funded by the towns, but the completion of the projects will now take longer than the original five year plan.

“While we would have liked to have been designated by the state committee as a Stellar Community, we know that the work we have done to make our community vibrant and growing meets our own definition of Stellar, said Thallemer. “We also wish to congratulate Rushville and Mayor Mike Pavey.”