With the Valpo Sports & Recreation Campus on hold, funding is being freed up for improvements downtown. The 248-acre park would have included new athletic fields, a nature park and other attractions east of State Road 49. But former Mayor Matt Murphy paused the project last summer, when costs came in more than $7 million higher than expected.
Since the city won't be spending the $4.7 million allocated to the project in the first round of the state's READI program, the Northwest Indiana Forum encouraged the city to reapply for something else.
"We submitted the streetscape improvements that would be around the Lincoln garage as well as the Linc project, and we received a $1 million grant for that," Valparaiso Development Director George Douglas told the board of works last week.
Board members unanimously approved the necessary grant agreement with the Northwest Indiana Forum.
