The Crown Point Mayor David Uran and the City of Crown Point hosted the Crown Point State of the City event on June 22 at Bulldog Park.
The event brought together the Mayor’s Office, all of the city’s departments, and many local businesses and residents for an evening of networking, recapping the past two years, and revealing several big announcements to highlight what Crown Point residents can look forward to in 2021.
At the beginning of the evening, the mayor and Crown Point Clerk-Treasurer Dave Benson recognized several Crown Point businesses and individuals with special awards.
First, the City of Crown Point honored two students for their outstanding work in their academic careers as Crown Point Community School Corporation pupils. They are recognized for their academic, extracurricular, and volunteer efforts throughout the community. The students honored were Azzam Atif and Franchesca Hernandez.
“Thank you to those students who give so much, who volunteer, and who set the example in our schools,” said Uran.
Then, Uran and Benson recognized Alda Vellutini for the Community Service Award. She has served the community for over 50 years through various positions throughout Crown Point.
The City of Crown Point also honored local businesses for their longevity within the community. The following businesses were honored for their long-term commitment to working with Crown Point: Pete and Sons Auto Repair, NWI Print Pro, and Ozinga were all recognized for 35 years of service; Wittenberg Village was recognized for 44 years of service; J & J Remodeling, Inc. was recognized for 50 years of service; and Edward Rose & Sons was recognized for 100 years of service.
The city recognized the Kiddie Academy of Crown Point as Redevelopment Project of the Year for its dedication to providing excellent education to the youth of Crown Point.
The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority then donated $20,000 to the city in order to continue to develop tourism in Crown Point.
“The city is very indebted to the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority,” said Uran. “They are here to promote tourism, not only in the Region, but especially in Crown Point. They continue to showcase our residents and bring people to Crown Point from all over the Midwest to enjoy our city.”
Fransiscan Health was also honored at the event for their investment in the community.
“This is the largest ever private investment in the City of Crown Point. It is a $250 million plus project,” said Uran. “It will spark many opportunities from the Franscican Health team. We look forward to the ribbon cutting in 2024. We are excited to see what is happening at 1-65 and 231. We are very fortunate to have a good working relationship and partnership with Franciscan Health. They have partnered with the city going forward to make sure that this facility itself is very affordable to all residents and visitors.”
The mayor began to address the city and reflect upon the past two years of progress in Crown Point. Uran began by recognizing the many vendors and city leadership members that made the event possible. He praised everyone’s efforts to allow the city to navigate the world during and post-pandemic and be able to gather at Bulldog Park for the city’s first maskless event.
Then, Uran began to highlight the many accomplishments of the city within the past 24 months.
“It's amazing what has taken place to transform the City of Crown Point and the quality of life that continues to make the city the best place to live, work, and play,” said Uran.
Benson was also recognized for his work with the city.
“Dave has really worked very hard to transform that office and create a new working environment. There's a ton of renovations that took place with the Cares Act dollars that came in,” said Uran. “The bottom floor of the city hall was transformed. We have a new foyer. A new walk-up window. A better way to engage with the clerk treasurer's when you're there to do business. It's really welcoming, and David and his entire team have done a great job of doing so.”
Uran emphasized the new technological developments that the city has made during Benson’s term so far.
“They've really made it easier for people to pay their bills online. Ultimately, it gives citizens a better opportunity to do things with our city in a very seamless and effortless way. We're not working harder, we're working smarter. Dave's leading the charge in the court treasurer's office.”
The city has also implemented a new online service called, “See, Click Fix.” It allows residents that see issues within the city (i.e. potholes, city upkeep, etc.) to take pictures, upload them to the city’s website, and contact city departments directly to deal with the problems.
“It goes right to the department head so that you'll get direct communication back and forth until that problem is resolved. It keeps us on our toes to make sure that work orders are taken care of in a timely fashion, and that, at the end of the day, the quality of life is restored to its natural state,” explained Uran.
The mayor continued by praising the developments at the Police and Fire Departments. Three new officers were recently sworn into service, totaling 49 officers serving the city. The Crown Point Community School Corporation was also honored for providing additional school resource officers. The mayor discussed the importance of building relationships between the school resource officers and students to foster a relationship that is not adversarial but positive.
“We build that foundation, early in life, especially at the student level. It makes them much more of a productive citizen as they go into life, and they have that ability to bond with our officers going forward,” said Uran.
The town has been recognized for its safety, and Uran connects the city’s success in safety to the police department and local businesses.
“We’re ranked the fourth safest community in the state of Indiana. Crime reports were down by 15%. We had no homicides the last two years and had no aggravated assaults,” explained Uran. “Those things are all down because of our community police. Even more importantly, it's our partnership we have with the community itself, who reach out and respect our officers and the job they do. Working together really makes us a stronger community. We'll be the first to say these rankings are because of the residents, business owners, and police working together as part of a team.”
The fire department was also recognized for hiring four new firefighters and paramedics to total 39 full-time firefighters who can provide quick service to Crown Point citizens in need.
“This allows us to have staffing for complete ambulances at any given time,” said Uran.
The mayor also boasted low tax rates in the city.
“We're very very proud of this: the City of Crown Point has the lowest municipal tax rate of any city or town in Lake or Porter County. 72 cents of the dollar is what we collect.”
The mayor continued to praise various city departments: emergency services for quickly addressing a recent major storm, public works for maintaining city utilities, local businesses for supporting the city throughout the pandemic, and new businesses investing in the community. Uran looks forward to many future developments the city has planned.
“We've been building, we've been planning, and we've been reinvesting in our city.”
Over 313 new single family homes are being constructed in Crown Point. The average cost of these new homes is $370,000, equating to over $132 million of new investment. Commercial and industrial real estate is progressing. Healthcare job opportunities are continuing to open up with businesses like Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute opening up this past year and Franciscan Health opening in 2024.
The hospitality business is on the rise in Crown Point with the opening of Hampton Inn by Marriott in July to keep tourists and visitors in Crown Point rather than going to other cities for lodging. Infrastructure is developing in the city. The Little Cal River Basin Commission has dedicated $2.6 million towards the city. There is over $10 million of road infrastructure being addressed, including 109th. The city plans to finish the roadwork project on 109th this year.
The mayor ended his address by thanking the city, its residents, and its businesses for all of its teamwork in making Crown Point one of the best places to live in the Region.
“This is the reason why we do what we do each and every day. We appreciate the partnership across the board that we have with everybody here. Thank you to my office, our city council, our elected officials, our boards and commission, and every resident of our family of 30,000 people in our business community. We say thank you for making Crown Point what it is today.”
To watch GreatNews.Life’s livestream of the event in partnership with the city of Crown Point, visit this page.