By Ben Rodgers
Editor
HOBART – Coming out of closed session on Tuesday, June 5, the Hobart village board agreed to incentivize the largest residential housing project in the village to date.
The action was to approve a second amendment to the current development agreement with Centennial Centre Development Partners LLC, the group that has constructed Hobart Crossing, which currently consists of three large apartment buildings in TID No. 1 in northern Hobart.
The village agreed to provide a $150,000 initial incentive and a $150,000 loan to the group for the construction of an $8 million, 72-unit apartment building.
“This project has greatly exceeded its initial growth projections when it was first built three years ago,” said Aaron Kramer, village administrator, after the meeting. “We continue to see a high demand for multi-family residential options throughout the entire village. This project is just further evidence of the impressive growth we’re seeing in north Hobart.”
Kramer said the village will recoup the incentives down the road.
“The incentive payment is being paid out of future property tax revenue from the building,” he said. “Essentially we give them the money up front and we collect it back from property taxes over the next number of years.”
According to the developer, construction is slated to begin in late summer or early fall.
The village board also approved the sale of $2,175,000 in bonds for the construction of a new water tower to better serve northern Hobart.
The bonds will be sold in July. Construction is set to start in mid to late August.
School resource officer
The village also discussed an agenda item from the Pulaski Community School District that is up for action on Wednesday, June 6.
The school resource officer assigned to Hillcrest Elementary School in Hobart, but is part of the PCSD, will be leaving the position.
PCSD is proposing to staff the position with an officer from the Pulaski Police Department, instead of the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department.
“The whole crux of having a liaison officer in the building in the first place is so that you have somebody tied to the community and somebody tied to the parents and children they work with and get to know, and they can be a help to the district and the parents and the community,” said Randy Bani, Hobart-Lawrence Police Department chief, after the meeting.
The position typically is four hours a week.
Bani said the department is sometimes called to deal with problem students in the area who don’t want to attend school.
Because the school is in the police jurisdiction of Hobart, a Pulaski officer would then need to call the Hobart officer to go and service the call.
“All police activity still remains with the jurisdiction of the village of Hobart and all cases of arrests, all ordinance violations and all investigations still lie with the village of Hobart and the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department,” Bani said. “So it’s kind of silly to put a Pulaski police officer in the schools so they can call a Hobart police officer to do their work.”
The agenda item was listed as an action item for the Pulaski school board, meaning a vote could come Wednesday.
However, Hobart officials have drafted letters to request the item be tabled so they can make their case.
Part of Pulaski superintendent Bec Kurzynske’s job is to bring recommendations to the board.
“What I shared with our board and Mr. Kramer is that my recommendation to the board, after having reviewed the request for proposals that the district put out, that we contract with Pulaski Police Department as their proposal called for additional hours compared t the proposal from the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department,” Kurzynske said on Wednesday.
She said it isn’t up to her to determine if an item will be tabled for a future meeting.
“If the board wishes to act tonight that would be their choice. Or if they wanted to move the item to June 20th that would be there idea as well,” she said.