From the Desk of Town Manager Robert Shanahan
May 1st, 2020 finds the Town of Shipshewana in a very different position than we were at the same time last year. Spring is in the air, the wildflowers are blooming, and the Town has started planting its garden beds in preparation for better times ahead.
The Town’s construction projects are still on track and will commence in the next few weeks. The first project will be the black topping of the two alleys running north of Middlebury Street, lying east and west of Harrison Street. The next project will be the Middlebury Street upgrade from where we left off last year. This will involve removing the existing concrete roadbed and laying a blacktop road with new curb, gutter and sidewalks. In conjunction with these projects the Town will be removing the old restroom which will create much needed additional visitor parking. The State Road #5 road project slated for 2022 is still on the drawing board and until the Town is told otherwise, we are planning for that to go ahead. The Next Trails grant application that the Town had applied for to extend the Pumpkin-vine Trail has been postponed until later this year, but not cancelled.
The times and conditions that we are living in now are unprecedented. Who would have thought, even 6 months ago, that we as a community would be living and working in such a restrictive, but necessary, manner. The Town Council has done its very best to make sure that the needs of the community have been met considering the limitations placed on them by Federal and State edicts.
I look forward to the time when it is deemed safe to open the Town again. I am very honored to work for the Town of Shipshewana, and to be part of what makes it a great community. This pandemic has been very hard for everyone and the Town Council is very much aware of the financial hardships being suffered by so many of you.
I look forward to better times and sunnier days.
Bob Shanahan
Town Manager
Town of Shipshewana
