Ridenour Controlled MRC Has One Last Hurrah

On Monday a special meeting was briefly held for the Downtown YMCA building to be sold for $770,000 and turned into luxury apartments. The meeting took place just hours before the Muncie Redevelopment Commission’s composition changed, when the majority Democrat council voted 6-3 for Andrew Dale and Zane Bishop to be appointed, replacing Isaac Miller and Lorraine Tomlin.

The property was bought by True Development Solutions and will become an apartment building. MRC member Isaac Miller during the livestreamed meeting said that the price was $270,000 more than what Muncie bought it for. Mayor Ridenour stated in a press release this morning: “This area of downtown is the main gathering space of downtown events… [we] plan to seek out more uses that complement and enhance the area.” Although Republican council-woman Ro Selvey said she was disappointed with the decision, and instead was hoping that the location could be used for a community center. Some individuals repeated the same point of view in Facebook comments this morning.

Although the seven-minute video is available on the City of Muncie Facebook page, no public comment was able to be made and little information was publicly known about the deal beforehand.

The new makeup of the MRC will lean less conservative after the two appointments were made. Last night’s appointment for Steve Craig to Police Merit Commission was a more complicated situation. They needed a vote of 5-4 for an appointment to be successfully made and rather than all Dems nominating one individual the whole council was split between Craig, Roger Overbey, and Wayne Scaife. Other appointments included Billy McIntosh for the Industrial Loan Fund, Jerry Dishman for Metropolitan Planning, Harold Mason for Emergency Communication, and Hans Heintselman for Riverfront Project Review.