Heritage Fund : The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County

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Breaking Ground on New Commons

BY PAUL MINNIS pminnis@therepublic.com

Ben, left, and Charlotte Verbanic toss shovels full of ceremonious dirt with others at Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony for the new Commons. Photo by Andrew Laker - The Republic

Adults and children wearing blue hard hats and holding shiny shovels lined up behind a pile of dirt, just beyond an open gate to the old Commons site.
The audience counted to three, and everyone in the line scooped some dirt and pitched it forward.
Finally, if not officially, construction of the new Commons was on — with actual construction expected to start next week.
“I can’t believe this is actually going to happen this afternoon,” Columbus Mayor Fred Armstrong said before the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday.
Numerous people attended the 10-minute event, although an actual count was difficult because Neighborfest and the United Way kickoff shared the same section of Washington Street.
Armstrong, who spoke first from a stage next to the site, thanked people who made the project happen and announced The Commons’ indoor playground would be called the “Jim Henderson Playground” because of that man’s contribution.
A former Cummins Inc. chairman, Henderson headed the private sector fund drive for The Commons that raised $3 million.
“We do live in an unexpected, unforgettable community,” Armstrong said, “and we will for many years to come.”
City Councilman George Dutro, who spoke next, held a hardhat under his arm as he praised the community. He even praised those people who initiated a remonstrance, because it “gave the community something to rally around” to soundly defeat that effort. Children participated in the groundbreaking due to the inclusion of the indoor playground. Ben Verbanic and his sister Charlotte Verbanic, both 11, said they are looking forward to playing in the new facility, which will include slides and climbers. “I was alive when the old playground was there, and I liked it,” Ben Verbanic said about the former playground, which was torn down along with the rest of the old Commons in 2008.
Plans show the new Commons will have performances spaces, an indoor playground, offices and outside-accessible storefronts when it opens in mid-2011.
It is supposed to eventually adjoin the recently built Cummins office complex and the long-anticipated Candlewood Suites and Richard L. Johnson Conference and Education Center.
Taxpayers are responsible for $9 million of The Commons’ cost, while private donors, Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation and the Heritage Fund Community Foundation will pay $9 million, for a total of $18 million.
Dunlap & Co. of Columbus will handle construction under a $12.4 million contract, which will pay for the hard costs, such as architectural, electrical, mechanical and plumbing work.
It also will include additional features such as garland roofing, green roofing and epoxy terrazzo flooring, and the rebuilding of Jackson Street as a paved thoroughfare.
Soft costs such as furniture are bid separately and do not involve tax dollars; however, they are part of the $18 million total.
A remonstrance led by project opponent Mike Lovelace delayed the project for about five months, though it failed in the end.
The remonstrance was a battle of signatures between supporters of raising taxes to help pay for the building and people opposed to raising the taxes.
The pro-Commons side, led by the specially formed “Save The Commons Now” nonprofit committee, eventually won in July by a better-than 16-to-1 ratio.
“Save The Commons Now” held numerous public events, created a Web site, and even went door-to-door, to raise signatures.