In his annual state of the city address, Muncie’s mayor continued to link economic growth in the city to spending on improving the “quality of place” of Muncie.  And, as IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, he didn’t forget that when the region grows, Muncie can benefit.

Besides his first “state of the city” in 2020, the annual speech isn’t the place where Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour announces big, new projects.  Instead, it’s a greatest hits mix tape.

This year, that mix tape had technical issues, including altered sound from the room’s sound system and a 15-minute delay to the speech’s start to get a video live stream working.

The mayor pointed out how much improvement came to the city in 2021 through refreshes to city parks, progress on paving roads that had been stalled by the global pandemic, and new businesses and housing announcements.

He also pointed out that Muncie gave $15 million out of its pot of federal coronavirus relief funds to local businesses and organizations.

“And I do think this is quality of place.  The fact that we chose to put this in people’s hands, not ours.  I think that’s a statement.”

Ridenour highlighted several other 2021 projects in the hour-long speech.  Among them:

•  adding several new acres of city parks
•  hosting IronMan races, which the city will continue to do for several years
•  increased funding to the Muncie Animal Care and Services
•  The Markets on Madison project to redo Southway Centre
•  welcoming Afghan refugee families to Muncie
•  attracting remote workers to the area with monetary incentives
•  paying for city projects in cash instead of borrowing, decreasing Muncie’s bond debt by $6.7 million

In that spirit, the former banker says he was disappointed that Muncie’s region didn’t get more state dollars as part of the READI grant program, which hopes to fund quality of life and worker attraction ventures throughout Indiana.

The East Central Indiana region’s $15 million award was tied for second-smallest.  And that won’t fund something Ridenour champions – getting the state and federal government to turn US Route 35 into a four-lane highway from Wayne County’s Richmond to Chicago.  He links that to endless opportunities.

“You’ll see manufacturing, you will see warehouses, you will see logistics.  That will all be growing.  And it won’t be growing in the belt around Indianapolis.  It’ll be growing in East Central Indiana, and then in North Central Indiana as it gets to Kokomo and Logansport.”

To preview what the rest of this year will look like, the mayor says $6.792 million will be spent on parks improvements in 2022.  Sixty-three streets will be paved.  And necessary engineering work will be started to bring two of the city’s main drags – McGalliard Road and Tillotson Avenues – closer to being repaved.