Fort Wayne’s Legacy Committee held a meeting Thursday night to discuss funding for Park Center’s effort to revitalize the nearly-vacant Lafayette Medical Center, as well as funding several new rooms at Ivy Tech for the Unity Performing Arts Foundation.
Businesses submit their proposals to the Legacy Committee, which are then graded by each of its nine members. In order for a proposal to be debated for funding, a proposal must receive a composite score of 3.5 or higher.
Neither project could reach that threshold, with Park Center’s proposal receiving a 2.4 and the Unity Performing Arts Foundation getting a 2.7.
While neither proposal met the committee’s standard, committee member and councilman Tom Didier says he valued the funding for the arts dorms highly, citing a need for Fort Wayne to get behind funding more arts programs.
“The arts are so extremely important,” said Didier. “And the first funds that everyone seems to cut in high schools or wherever, and if people would take a really hard look at it, they’d see the importance of this.”
The Legacy Fund still has just under $40 million remaining.
