Oregon Township Trustee Mark Allen asked the Starke County Commissioners Monday night for help in funding a new Koontz Lake Association/Oregon Township Fire Station/Community Center.
The building was part of the Regional Development plan through the Constellation of Starke Regional Stellar Communities effort, but the county was not chosen as the designee in 2019. The program was halted in 2020 due to COVID-19, but it is the desire of Koontz Lake representatives to keep the project moving forward with plans.
He said the current fire station on State Road 23 is rented out for private and community events, but it is not designed for that purpose. Beyond that, new fire trucks have outgrown the width of the garage bays at the current facility so the new construction would accommodate those updates.
Allen simply told the commissioners that it is time to produce something new in the Koontz Lake community.
“Koontz Lake has not seen any new buildings since the ‘60s,” said Allen. “The KLA [Koontz Lake Association] building is quite old and so is the Koontz Lake Fire Department. We’ve grown. The community’s grown. We haven’t had the funding or the opportunity to make it better for the residents of that community.”
Territorial Engineering has worked with the Koontz Lake entities to come up with a design for the new community center that would be located just north of the current Koontz Lake Fire Department on State Road 23.
The preliminary project cost is about $2.1 million.
Koontz Lake resident Mike McKenna was one of several Koontz Lake residents in attendance during Monday night’s meeting. He commented there is a lot of excitement and community support for the building in addition to the Koontz Lake Association and the fire department to make the project a reality.
Starke County Council President Dave Pearman said money from the American Act Plan Act (ARPA) will not be spent for another couple of years. The lost revenue from the pandemic may be considered first, along with a broadband project, but State Representative Jim Pressel said county leaders could look at proposed projects like the proposed building in the Koontz Lake community and the proposed pavilion in San Pierre as a way to uplift unincorporated communities.
“Dave, I get where you’re coming from and it’s awesome that the council can participate in these commissioners meetings just to have this dialogue back and forth. There’s $4 million that’s available which is my understanding and here is a $2 million ask and there is a $170,000 ask and I’m sure you’re going to get many, many more, but making investments in the community through this ARPA fund I think is a great step in a great direction to lift up Starke County.”
No decisions were made by the commissioners Monday night. The idea behind the projects will be taken under consideration when a committee is formed to review needs for funding with ARPA funds.
