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FORT WAYNE —Thirty-eight projects. Eleven counties. More than $400 million.

Those are the numbers included in a massive economic development and quality-of-life improvement proposal sent to the state Tuesday by leaders of area businesses, cities and towns to compete for funding under the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s Regional Cities Initiative.

The initiative, created by Gov. Mike Pence and the IEDC, is aimed at fast-tracking projects to boost economic growth and spur population increases in Indiana. Regions throughout the state are competing for one of two $42 million grants made available this year by state lawmakers under the program.

Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership submitted its plans at a “premiere event” last night in Fort Wayne. The partnership includes Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley counties.

The 220-page proposal includes plans for dozens of projects ready to be completed over the next two years, including several in Wells County.

Among them, an $18 million performing arts center in Bluffton, a multi-county trails system that would connect with Ouabache State Park, $5.5 million for the proposed Bluffton Food Innovation Center and $250,000 for an amphitheater at Ossian’s Archbold-Wilson Park.

“Every single county in this region is going to benefit from what we’re going to talk about,” said John Sampson, president and CEO of the regional partnership.

“We are going to be a contender for that $42 million,” he said. “It is not ours, but we are going to be a contender.”

Among the regions vying for the money, only one other group — Central Indiana — has so far submitted plans to the state. Eight regions have said they will compete for initiative funding.

Speakers at the event Tuesday at the Mirro Center for Research and Innovation lauded the commitments of leaders in each of the 11 counties in the partnership. The projects included in the proposal would help draw people to northeast Indiana as well as grow the economy, they said.

Packets distributed at the event outlined a plan to grow the region’s population from about 789,000 now to 1 million by 2031.

Wells County Economic Development Director Tim Ehlerding served on a steering committee that worked on the proposal. He said this week officials in each of the member counties were focused on succeeding in the partnership’s bid for the state funding.

“There is no other region … in the state that is as organized and has a concept of teamwork as northeast Indiana,” said Ehlerding, who was out of state Tuesday and did not attend last night’s event. “It puts us in a great position.”

Regions have until Aug. 31 to submit proposals to the state. Decisions on which regions are picked to receive grants will likely come toward the end of this year.

The proposal from northeast Indiana had been in the works for about eight months.

Gene Donaghy, a rural Ossian resident, was named in June to a Regional Development Authority that was one of the final pieces necessary to have in place before a proposal was submitted. The development authority signed off on the proposal about an hour before the event Tuesday.

The most expensive portion of the proposal centered in Wells County is the performing arts center in Bluffton.

According to the proposal, a 40,000-square-foot facility would be located at the northeast intersection of Main Street and River Road. The project also would include landscaping the riverbank and creating green space there.

A restaurant and parking areas would be located on the south side of River Road, across from the performing arts center, according to the proposal.

Donaghy and others who attended the event in Fort Wayne said the projects would lead to growth and new residents in each of the member counties.

“All of these projects do affect cities across the 11-county area,” Donaghy said. “It’ll offer more opportunities for activities the communities can use.”

John Urbahns, a member of a project team that worked on the proposal, said the projects would attract younger, educated workers to the area. He said northeast Indiana is committed to improvement whether the state helps or not.

“We can do this with or without the state,” he said. “We want to do this with them, but we’re prepared to do it without them.”

The full proposal is available at www.neindiana.com/ regionalcities.

Article by Matthew LeBlanc, Courtesy of The News-Banner