Latest information on the ECC Project

Work continues to evolve on the Elma Community Complex project. The ECC project involves all non-profit organizations and is being done in phases as funding allows. The first phase has begun. Asbestos has been removed from the former brick school building and deconstruction began earlier this month. The second phase is building a medical clinic on Busti Avenue, which is scheduled to happen this spring/summer. Land for the medical clinic has been donated to the City of Elma. Originally the medical clinic was going to be built on the school property but a new location was sought after the property was included in a flood zone after a recent flood map update. A group of members from the Mennonite community and others have agreed to provide a significant amount of labor for building of the medical clinic.Regional Health Services of Howard County Elma Clinic plans to furnish and equip the building and will then provide family care services to include physicals, prenatal care, acute visits, lab services, and well child checks. We also plan to install two solar systems, one on the roof the medical clinic and the other on the ground across from the former school. Both systems will use an investor to sell power at a discounted rate to the city to save cost on power.

The third phase will be repurposing a portion of the gymnasium into a city clerk’s office and multipurpose community room. The handicap accessible room with kitchenette will be used for library programming for adults and youth, community meetings and gatherings (city council meetings, family gatherings, etc). Capacity will be around 50 people. The community room will serve as a temporary location for the three year old preschool program until the daycare addition is complete. The fourth phase involves adding a larger infant room onto the existing daycare and repurposing the current infant room into a 3 year old preschool. The fifth phase is renovating the remaining portion of the gym into a library and we will wrap up the project with finishing the parking lot and landscaping.

Increased daycare capacity, local medical services, and fully handicap accessible library adjacent to daycare and bus-stop are just a few of the ways the Elma area will benefit when this project is complete.

The estimated cost of the project is $1.2 million with $475,000 committed thus far. The committee plans to apply for a number of private grants and hopes to raise $200,000 -$300,000 through these grants. The remainder needs to come from private donations of citizens and businesses.

    Posted: April 1, 2019 in Community Complex
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