By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Amy Roe is ready to help area communities improve through her new role as Kosciusko County community coordinator.

Roe has been hired by the county for the newly created position. The hiring was announced Thursday night, Feb. 10. at the county council meeting.

Amy Roe

Her role will be to help communities improve via utilizing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Roe’s position came about via the county receiving a $1 million grant through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ (OCRA) new Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP).

Roe has bachelor’s degrees in psychology and sociology from Grace College and a marketing certificate from Greenville Technical College in South Carolina. She also has a master’s degree in management and leadership from WGU Indiana.

Roe comes into the role having previously served as the executive director of the Fulton County Chamber of Commerce and worked for the Fountain Inn Chamber of Commerce in South Carolina. She was one of the co-founders of and currently serves as the head of Fulton County H.O.P.E., which works to help residents in Fulton County connect to community resources to help with substance abuse, poverty and mental health.

Kosciusko is just one of three communities or counties in the state to be selected for the first round of the grant program, which according to information from OCRA is meant to “amplify the impact of the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, or CLFRF” via ARPA. The other initial communities or counties are Jay County and Auburn.

The state, which has partnered with Purdue University, Ivy Tech Community College, Ball State University and Indiana University for HELP, hopes that communities will become stronger via means such as improving internet access, arts and culture, housing, childcare, physical and mental health and economic development, according to program information Roe shared with InkFreeNews on Thursday.

She and Kosciusko County Commissioners’ President Cary Groninger sat down with InkFreeNews Thursday morning to discuss her position.

Not only will Roe be helping county communities use ARPA money to accomplish some goals, she will also be helping them hunt down grants and use HELP funding for projects.

“HELP … has a dollar for dollar matching grant that supplements … ARPA money,” said Groninger. “We’re also hoping that we would be able to leverage those dollars even greater with other grant opportunities, but the key thing is I guess that I would see in her position is going to be really training up these small communities and us here at the county to where we’ve got the capacity to be able to take and go from an idea, gather input from your community, create a project and then actually complete it.”

The position of community coordinator is part of the requirements from OCRA for the county being able to receive the HELP grant.

She will be paid for the part-time position out of both ARPA and OCRA funds. Groninger said for now she will probably work 30 hours a week and that the position will last five years as that’s the timeline for spending ARPA funds.

Roe will work partly out of the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. (KEDCo) office though the position will also probably include a lot of travel around to communities.

KEDCo CEO Alan Tio as well as Kosciusko County Community Foundation CEO Stephanie Overbey and Milford Clerk-Treasurer Tricia Gall were part of the committee that narrowed applicants for the position down to Roe, said Groninger.

Groninger said he sees both KEDCo and KCCF as important partners for improving communities through ARPA and HELP funds.

“We kind of wanted to make sure that we had a good rounded person (for Roe’s role) because we see those two as being big partners in this endeavor,” he said. “And a lot of what we’re even building on goes all the way back to what the community foundation did a couple of years ago with the Hometown Chats and then it rolled into the housing strategy then it rolled into our Forward Kosciusko comprehensive plan and so it’s like one’s kind of built on top of the other and really this HELP program is how I described it when we received the award down in Indianapolis was I felt like we’ve built the launchpad, we’ve even built the rocket, and this is the rocket fuel that’s going to kind of get liftoff, so to speak.”

He and Roe said the specific tasks she will undertake as community coordinator are still being worked out.

“So currently right now what I’m doing is … actually jumping straight in to understanding what has been done previous to myself and reading up on all of the Hometown Chat information and housing strategy and understanding what KEDCo’s part of it and the community foundation, so really getting to understand each and every one of the partners and the reports and plans that have been done for Kosciusko and meeting with different individuals and understanding their vision for the program and then after that, from what I understand, I’ll be meeting with Alex (Taylor) who is the lead at the state at OCRA … and he will walk us through a process and help us to understand what specifically our everyday role will be,” said Roe.

Groninger pointed out specifics are still being worked on as the program is brand new for both the county and state.

“We’re learning as we go,” he said.

He said HELP is meant to help communities rebuild from the effects of COVID-19.

“We’re trying to build capacity and resiliency in these small communities because they were affected by the COVID because it is COVID dollars or those ARPA dollars that are helping fund this program,” he said. “It’s kind of just making sure we’re letting these communities really look at those funds that they received and what other funds are out there that are available, how they can really make strategic long-lasting, impactful investments in their community and building capacity, building resiliency to really make it a quality of life and things that we’re looking for in these small towns.”

“I think the key thing is to really going to be able to build those relationships between these communities and the county and how we can all work together to make the county better because you know a rising tide raises all ships, so I mean if those small communities are doing better, the county’s doing better, you know so it’s just one of those things that we’re really looking for that collaborative effort to really make these small communities have the quality of life that’s going to attract new residents to our county,” Groninger continued.

The towns of Etna Green, Mentone, Milford and Pierceton are participating with Kosciusko County in HELP, which commenced recently with in-person training for local officials involved in the effort, and will include interactions with other cohort participants Jay County and Auburn, according to information provided by KEDCo.

Groninger said Roe will probably attend a lot of government meetings in her role.

Roe was raised in Rochester in Fulton County and still lives there. However, she said she has had multiple connections to Kosciusko County and perhaps an outsider’s view, which she believes will help in her role.

She noted her time spent at Grace and her later building “a department at Grace Village … working with Jeff Carroll and also (helping) Cerulean get started.” She also has been active in GOP politics, which has led her to connect with fellow Republicans in Kosciusko County.

“I was born in Rochester, Indiana, and it is my home … but this has always been a second home to me,” she said. “I think that I have an outside and inside perspective. I think that’s an interesting thing because I have an inside perspective from being here multiple times but an outside perspective, which I think is helpful for bringing new insight.”

She also noted her familiarity with small towns.

“You know that (being) from a small community from Rochester, I … understand how small towns work and so I think it’s a really neat opportunity to take everything that I’ve learned, all my experiences and really bring it to the next level, so I think it’s going to be a great opportunity,” she said.