Fort Wayne’s Legacy Committee approved a request for the Community Development Office to develop a funding plan for the Electric Works proposal, resulting in a 7-2 vote.
The final vote was taken after two hours of discussion regarding the proposal. Tom Didier voted in favor of it, with his concerns at this time apparently addressed.
“So long as we know this is coming back and there’s a plan in place for the recommendations on how this is going to be funded, I’ll vote yes because I think it is Legacy worthy from the standpoint of what it is,” Didier said.
Paul Ensley was one of the two dissenting votes. While saying he supported the vision of the Electric Works project, he added the capital stack for the project is “incomplete,” and went so far as to say there isn’t a project without all of the funding sources at the table.
“One of the guiding principles of the Legacy Fund is that we are supposed to be last dollar in, we aren’t supposed to be seed money to go find other investments,” Ensley said.
In an apparent shift to his position prior to the meeting, Mayor Tom Henry sent out a news release expressing his support for the project, and encouraged Council members to approve the funding.
