Dunbar ready for second year as Mayor

With a first year that was dominated by U.S. 231 construction, a UTV ordinance and an opportunity to showcase her city to thousands of visitors during an eclipse under her belt, Greencastle Mayor Lynda Dunbar is ready for year two of her first term. 

Dunbar said when she looks back on her first year, she thinks it had gone "pretty good."

"I wasn't new to city government. I will say every day the best experience I got was being the city clerk-treasurer for 12 years, and I saw how city government worked every single day under a couple different administrations. I was able to come in and just get going," Dunbar told The Putnam County Post.

One thing Dunbar is extremely proud of is the job the city employees have done this year, regardless of the department. During her first year, Dunbar made changes in leadership in two departments, as Rob Frank was named new fire chief for the city and Jason Keeney took over the parks and recreation department.  

"I am super proud of our city employees. The park is amazing, and Jason has really embraced that and worked really hard with the staff. We've tried to keep up with downtown because that is the least we can do for our merchants -- have a clean downtown despite all the chaos. We have had a lot of good things happen this year, and I am super excited about being mayor and what we have ahead of us," Dunbar said.

What is on the horizon is quite a few things for Greencastle, as the city will embark on a new stormwater utility in the new year, as well as continued road projects, and the opening of the new YMCA on the east side of Greencastle.  

"The first thing is the YMCA is to open in the first quarter. I have been out there and it is a beautiful facility. I encourage people to look at their memberships, as there are a lot of exciting things they will be doing at the YMCA. There is something for everybody at every age," Dunbar said.

As mayor, Dunbar said it is getting harder for cities like Greencastle to stay up with crumbling infrastructure, something she looks to do with the stormwater utility. 

"Every community struggles with it. It is out of sight, out of mind until it breaks or until you tear a road up. It is so expensive to fix the infrastructure. We have enough money in our communities to function day to day and it is getting harder to function day to day. You just have to give and take and do the best we can. One thing we have started doing is doing our own internal work and that has saved us thousands of dollars. We will continue to do that," Dunbar admitted. 

In the new year, there will be multiple road projects taking place across Greencastle, beginning with the "big road construction project on Washington Street," according to Dunbar. 

"That is exciting, and I know it may have problems up and down the road, but we intend to put in new water lines, new sewer lines and my goal is to not dig it up. 

It is a 50 year fix for that road. I have a list of roads that are a big problem and, of course, detours did not help newer streets that we have done. We are going through the list and we don't have tons of money, but the priorities are Albin Pond Road, the Washington Street project and our city streets. We are going to chip away at them one at a time," Dunbar said. 

In addition, there are continued plans regarding Seminary Square and what that area between Greencastle and DePauw may look like.

"Redevelopment approved the contract with the design of the pool at the YMCA, so that is moving forward. You will hear some talk about that, and we may have a public forum to talk about that. It is my understanding that in the first quarter, they are working on the request for proposal on Seminary Square which is the apartments and sometime in the first or second quarter, that will be out. They are working hard on the theater, as well. Lot of momentum and working through everything. It is exciting. I have been out with consultants looking at different things in Greencastle, and I think we are going to see a lot of exciting changes for the city of Greencastle," Dunbar said.