Boys & Girls Clubs 10-year plan gets favorable response
Merrillville Plan Commission OKs funding to assist with new location
The Merrillville Plan Commission approved a funding mechanism Tuesday to help the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Northwest Indiana locate its Merrillville club in the proposed Epic United volleyball building for at least 10 years.
The commission’s unanimous vote was the first of several steps that need to be taken by various town governing boards, Epic United and the Boys & Girls Clubs before being finalized.
Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6th, said the town would allocate $225,000 a year of its distributions from four tax increment financing districts to the organization, which in turn would give the money to Epic United as a lease payment for 12,000-15,000 square feet of space in Epic’s 60,000-square-foot building.
The club, which has moved out of its former location in Merrillville Intermediate School, could possibly use both the volleyball building and the adjacent Dean and Barbara White Community Center for its various activities.
“This sunsets after 10 years. After that, the town is out of it and Epic and the Boys & Girls Clubs need to come up with their own arrangement,” Pettit said.
Ryan Smiley, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about the lease proposal. However, he said last month that the club has been in ongoing conversations with both the town and the privately owned volleyball group and that the board would be “very interested” in discussing the possibility of locating in the Epic United building.
He said the club would need a lot of space and he would be open to discussing having its Merrillville activities divided between the Epic building once its constructed and the adjacent Dean and Barbara White Community Center.
Pettit said the town receives about $895,000 a year in distributions from its four TIF districts. It will continue to give $325,000 of that amount to Merrillville Schools Corp. for a career counseling program, as it has done for the past six years, in addition to the $225,000. The remaining amount stays with the town.
“Our TIF districts are doing very well,” Pettit said.
Pettit said the funding mechanism still needs to go through a public hearing and several leases — between the Boys & Girls Clubs and the Merrillville Redevelopment Commission, between the RDC and a new nonprofit created by the town that three residents sit on, and between the new nonprofit and Epic United.
The Town Council also needs to pass a resolution approving the funding plan.
Pettit said he hopes Epic begins construction on its building around July 1 and is in the building by November, when its volleyball club season begins.
The Dean and Barbara White Community Center opened its doors at 6600 Broadway Monday and Tuesday for a two-day reveal, and began its regular weekday hours of 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Weekend hours are 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday. By the end of the day on Monday, more than 700 residents had registered to use the center.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with community response and their eagerness to participate and use the center,” Jan Orlich, Merrillville Park and Recreation director, said.
An estimated 800 residents toured the facility.
Bruce White, Trustee with the Dean and Barbra White Family Foundation, which gifted the center $10 million for operational costs, said, “The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation is proud to be a partner because Dean and Barbara and the entire White family have been and will continue to be about partnerships that improve the lives of all. My mom and dad believed that a place is home because of the people in it. The true potential is unlocked when they all come together.”
“This will again place Merrillville as one of the premier places to live, visit and play in Northwest Indiana,” Town Council President Rick Bella, D-5th, said.