The 10th and final Stellar Communities project is the Gatke Maker Space. The Gatke property redevelopment is a Stellar Communities Project that will meet a long-standing goal of repurposing an important area of the East Market Street neighborhood, according to information from the City of Warsaw Building and Planning Department. The location on the ride/walk path makes it ideal for a modern industrial community center that enhances connections with the Town of Winona Lake. “As a ‘maker space,’ the site will provide support for anyone to turn ideas into tangible form. Our maker space will be scaled to fit our community – a model based on collaboration, sustained by sharing space with educational and industry partners,” the information states. Programing of the maker space will lean toward a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and arts-focused venue for the community. The maker opportunities offered will be driven by various specific community focus groups. Examples of equipment and programs that may be available for use by the public could include robotics, 3D printing, CAD workstations, wood and metal fabrication, multi-media arts workstations, laser etching and sewing equipment. The information provided states, “We are excited to present this project. The Gatke building has the opportunity to be yet another asset that improves quality of life for a broad range of citizens in the Warsaw-Winona Lake community.” Indiana will designate its 2016 Stellar Communities Aug. 18 at the state fair, and the City of Warsaw is one of three finalists vying for the honor in its category. To inform the local community about the proposed projects the city has in mind as part of the Stellar Community Program, and to gather input, Warsaw has created a Facebook page under “Warsaw + Winona Lake A Stellar Connection.” Each week, for the last five weeks, the Facebook page has detailed two of the proposals, which also were published in the Times-Union.
