{"id":1505,"date":"2015-12-28T18:08:17","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T18:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:48","slug":"barton-00-and-crawfordsvilles-stellar-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2015\/12\/28\/barton-00-and-crawfordsvilles-stellar-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Barton \u201900 and Crawfordsville’s Stellar Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crawfordsville will look a lot different in the coming few years thanks to a big win by a team led by Mayor Todd Barton \u201900. Those changes include the strongest partnership yet between the city and Wabash College.\u00a0<\/em>Here\u2019s an excerpt from our story in the upcoming edition of <\/em>Wabash Magazine.<\/h4>\n

Last August Crawfordsville was on the verge of scoring one of the biggest economic victories in the city\u2019s history, and Mayor Todd Barton \u201900 didn\u2019t have a speech.<\/p>\n

He didn’t want to jinx it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m superstitious,\u201d Barton admits as he recalls last summer\u2019s announcement at the Indiana State Fair of the 2015 Indiana Stellar Community designee. The city had applied for the designation\u2014an award that could bring the city $17 million in grants and access to state funds\u2014five times. We\u2019d been a finalist once before. And Barton always had a speech ready.<\/p>\n

Not this time.<\/p>\n

That decision was even more ironic because the city\u2019s previous applications had been penned by consultants, but this one was all Barton and City Planning Director Brandy Allen.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsultants do great work, but each year we didn\u2019t win I\u2019d look back and think, Those weren\u2019t our words. They didn\u2019t have the passion and the feel that came from the heart, from Crawfordsville,\u201d <\/i>Barton says. \u201cSo this year we decide to write it ourselves, and we went below the surface. Most communities talk about the nice things they\u2019re going to do, the pretty things, but we said, \u2018Those things are great, but we\u2019re also going to change the way we do business.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a risky decision that could put the city either over the top or out of the league.<\/p>\n

The former Crawfordsville fire chief and Wabash political science major thought it was time to go for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I chose to run for mayor I was so upset with the mentality that had crept into our local leadership, that we should just roll over and die, that we don\u2019t deserve to be better,\u201d Barton says. \u201cI don\u2019t believe that. I don\u2019t roll that way. That fire comes from within.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly winning the Stellar in 2014 only made Barton more determined. So he and Allen put hundreds of hours into the writing and presentation.<\/p>\n

The writing was personal, but the process was more collaborative than ever. In multiple sessions\u2014including some led by the College\u2019s Democracy and Public Discourse Initiative<\/a> students\u2014Barton had listened to what citizens wanted and needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe College was really engaged and a full partner in this process, and President Hess and I meet on a regular basis to talk about our projects, our vision, and how we can work together,\u201d Barton recalls. As Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellsperman put it:\u00a0\u201cThe other impressive piece of this [application] was the Wabash College connection. It wasn\u2019t just having them on the sidelines, but integrating them into this plan. I think that put Crawfordsville over the top\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCrawfordsville had not had a huge win for a long time, and we needed one,\u201d Barton says.<\/p>\n

And we got it!<\/a><\/p>\n

See the album above for a glimpse at what some of the coming changes will look like and some outtakes from photographer Kim Johnson\u2019s session with Barton. And listen now to Richard Paige\u2019s interview of the mayor on <\/em>Wabash On My Mind podcast<\/a>. Read the complete story in the upcoming <\/em>Wabash Magazine in February.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Steve Charles<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crawfordsville will look a lot different in the coming few years thanks to a big win by a team led by Mayor Todd Barton \u201900. Those changes include the strongest partnership yet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":1507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes","category-features","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2015\/12\/01-0b8a3345-1024x682.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1505"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1794,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505\/revisions\/1794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}