Our Southern Indiana RDA moving forward with READI process

Brooke McAfee, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·5 min read

Jun. 2—SOUTHERN INDIANA — Our Southern Indiana Regional Development Authority is planning to move forward this summer with plans for the region's $50 million in READI funding.

The next steps for the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) program funds will be considered at the upcoming RDA meeting, which will take place Friday at the Washington County Courthouse in Salem. The RDA will discuss the process for determining funding allocations for projects in the READI plan.

The READI grant will support projects in Clark, Floyd, Jefferson, Scott and Washington counties. The RDA sent the final grant agreement to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation on May 19, and they will soon receive the fully-executed contract.

This agreement will give the RDA the "authority to move projects forward and start obligating some of the READI funds toward the projects," according to Cory Cochran, executive director of River Hills Economic Development District Regional Planning Commission. River Hills is working with the RDA to implement the READI grant.

At Friday's meeting, the RDA is expected to consider a "methodology behind funding the projects submitted in our Regional Development Authority plan," Cochran said. This will help give the RDA an idea of what the funding amounts should be for each project and a timeline for the project.

Projects in the READI plan have received informal approval from the IEDC, but they will still need to go through a process to receive formal approval by the state agency.

"Each of them have received what we call informal approval, and still a lot of projects have to provide more information to the IEDC," Cochran said.

Wendy Dant Chesser, president and CEO of One Southern Indiana, said there has been a lot of "hurry up and wait" with the READI process. Our Southern Indiana RDA is administered by One Southern Indiana.

"We've been waiting for all the IEDC guidance to come forth, and now the RDA has to figure out which projects are eligible and how to allocate the funding," she said.

Cochran said the RDA will likely approve a couple of smaller projects in the READI plan at Friday's meeting, and approval for some larger projects could happen at the following RDA meeting. The RDA will also discuss whether another meeting is needed in the next couple of weeks to move forward with projects.

Dana Huber, chair of the Our Southern Indiana board of directors, said the local RDA has received a positive response from the IEDC.

"I think the IEDC is very impressed by the amount of time we have spent prior to this process and providing the project information — our particular Regional Development Authority is in a good position to be able to go forward and have details needed to really be able to work on these projects," she said.

Last fall, the RDA submitted a plan for $85 million in regional projects, but the actual grant amount is $50 million. Huber notes that although the Southern Indiana region was allocated $50 million in READI dollars, $47 million will go to projects, and the rest will support administration of the grant.

"There's still a lot of potential with the $47 million, and we'll have to figure out as a group how to budget into that number," she said.

Cochran said the RDA and River Hills have been in discussion with the IEDC and project leaders throughout the process, and accounting firm Ernst & Young is offering guidance on staying in federal compliance, since READI funds come from the American Rescue Plan.

Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore said although the RDA has not officially determined project allocations, state officials gave "informal" approval for READI funding of the city's North Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion. This would include $5 million toward the plant, located in River Ridge.

The city initially requested $10 million for the plant expansion, but the request was scaled back to $5 million and paired with the City of Charlestown's wastewater plant project in the READI plan submitted by the RDA. Moore said he was "a little upset" by this process, but said he would "gratefully accept" the funding.

Moore expects the "shovel-ready" project to go out to bid in coming weeks. The city is using federal American Rescue Plan dollars to support the wastewater project, and Moore is looking to other funding opportunities for the state.

Leveraging the development of Origin Park is among the projects included in the RDA plan. Vern Eswine, a spokesperson for River Heritage Conservancy, notes that "there is still a lot of stuff up in the air," and the organization continues to wait for additional information from the RDA.

Cochran said project leads "are hungry to get started."

"This is a brand-new program, and I think the IEDC has a sense of urgency to get the dollars out the door as fast as we can," he said. "With the RDA doing its due diligence, I think we are getting the dollars out the door as soon as we can."

Huber said she is seeing "a lot of excitement as we get closer to engaging project leads."

"It's our job as the RDA to work with our team and make sure these project leads have clarity and transparency on the next steps forward," she said. "I think we're doing a great job with that, and the timeline is actually moving forward. I feel like we're probably one of the most prepared groups to move forward in the state."