By ADAM NUSSBAUM
LAGRANGE, Ind. — Discussion of a possible 100,000-square-foot expo center a mile and a half west of LaGrange on U.S. 20 prompted much debate at the LaGrange County Council meeting on Monday.
However, council members eventually agreed with the concept.
The controversy was due largely to the possibility of the county lending approximately $1.5 millon to the group looking to build the center.
The funds, from interest generated from the county’s Major Moves fund, would be used to extend sewer and water services to the site.
Ervin Miller and Freeman Miller, representing the group attempting to build the center, presented the project to the County Council, and asked the members to allow the county commissioners to consider lending them the money for infrastructure to the site.
“The area has changed drastically,” said Ervin Miller, referring to the growth of the woodworking industry in LaGrange County.
Miller said Amish woodworkers have been holding extremely successful exposition shows in Elkhart County, but those sites are now too small to satisfy the demand.
He said that the Amish woodworking community is asking itself, “What can we do for the community?”
One way to benefit LaGrange County, he said, would be to construct an expo center within the county, in order to attract visitors to the area.
Ervin Miller and Freeman Miller were careful to explain that the center would not just be for the Amish, but for the entire community. He stated that community groups would be free to rent space in the center, which would be considered a non-profit entity.
Other ways the center could be used, they said, are for farming and produce markets, office space for local non-profits, auctions and private gatherings, including wedding receptions.
“This is not just for the Amish,” said Freeman Miller. He said he and the other investors were there to ask if there is “a way to come together as a community to get infrastructure to the building.”
The actual building would be funded by private investors.
Although the actual expo center would be a non-profit entity, the land would be owned by another entity and be for-profit.
The commissioners had previously approved to consider loaning the group money for infrastructure, but added that if they were to loan it, they would also require the group to build a restaurant and a hotel on the 40-acre tract of land.
Freeman Miller said he realized that using Major Moves interest for a private project was controversial, but, “We can’t please everybody in this world.”
He said that he guessed the expo center would “add up to 35 new jobs, just at the beginning.”
Gary Zehr, director of LaGrange County Economic Development, said the redevelopment commission would approve the creation of a tax increment finance district around the expo center site, and the revenue from he district would be used to reimburse the county’s Major Moves money.
Although council members were in favor of allowing the commissioners to loan the money if they so decided, several attending the meeting spoke out against the possible loan.
Phil Malone, Howe, said the council needed to be careful about “using taxpayers’ money” to fund projects that were church-affiliated.
“Let’s prudently spend the money,” he said. “We’re holding you guys and the commissioners accountable. There is verbal unrest in the community about this issue.”
He also stated his concern that if the council and commissioners decided to loan money to this project, other groups would try doing the same thing.
“And we would decide (who to loan to) on a case--by-case basis,” answered George Bachman, county commissioner. “That mile and a half (of infrastructure) would bring tax dollars and usage into the town.”
Malone also referenced a $6,200 grant that the commissioners and council awarded a year ago to conduct a site-location study for the expo center. He said county money should never have been used for a study to benefit private investors.
“We may have made a mistake on that,” said Bachman. “That all happened a year ago,” he said, and that debating it now wouldn’t do any good. He added that the grant was approved at public meetings, and no remonstrances had occurred then.
Mike Sommer, who lives on U.S. 20 and owns 12 acres adjacent to the proposed site, doesn’t want the expo center built because he feels it would depreciate the value of his property.
“We built a house there just four years ago, and thought the agricultural zoning was in place, and that we could retire and do a little farming,” he said. “It feels like we’ve been robbed of our future plans and the equity that we have in place.”
Of his property, he said, “We are about four football fields back from the highway, and to have a 100,000-square-foot building as a new neighbor, we have a lot of concerns there. We would prefer that the council protect our property value.”
Charles Ashcraft, County Council president, said, “All we’re talking about is water and sewer lines,” and suggested that Sommer communicate with other boards that have jurisdiction over land use.
Ryan Riegsecker, County Council member, suggested the council be provided with “hard figures” about the cost of providing infrastructure, legal fees and other factors.
The council members agreed, and passed a motion to move ahead “with the concept,” and to appropriate $1.5 million of Major Moves interest money to the project once “the numbers are in play.”
