BATESVILLE, Ind. – The City of Batesville has been offered an opportunity to purchase the old Ivy Tech Building located at the intersection of Huntersville and County Line Road.
City officials say they would transform the vacant building into the Batesville Area Resource Center, housing non-profit organizations.
There is a local donor willing to donate $50,000 to the creation of the center if the city can raise matching funds, making $100,000 total.
If so, the funds will be used to relocate the city-owned Batesville Area Ministerial Association Food Pantry into the old college building. The pantry is currently located at 120 Sycamore St. and is need of repairs.
The pantry has served an average of 700 people and 280 children under the age of 18 each month for past three years.
Mayor Rick Fledderman commented, “There is more of a sense of urgency to find a different building for the food pantry because of the close quarters and not a lot of space.”
“Plus, there are concerns over the actual condition of building as far as electric, the electric needs to updated. The heating, the system needs to be updated. There is just a lot of updates needed for that particular building.”
The city would also look into phasing in additional entities in the old Ivy Tech building, such as the SEI Health Center and a nonprofit Resource Center creation.
Other nonprofit organizations could possibly take part in the center, in shared workspaces and revolving offices, city officials said.
“The plan is to make the building a very attractive building and it will not, in anyway, hurt the neighborhood or anything like that.”
“It will be a good partnership, just like Ivy Tech and the grocery store was for many years, the building is also in pretty good shape,” Fledderman added.
The city has not yet acquired the old Ivy Tech building as they search for donations to transform the concept into a reality.
