Milford Hometown Chat Focuses On Housing, Child Care
Milford Hometown Chat Focuses On Housing, Child Care
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Alaister McFarren-
Milford Hometown Chat Focuses On Housing, Child CareMILFORD – On Thursday, the Kosciusko County Community Foundation hosted the most recent of its 11 Hometown Chats.
According to consultant Mark Becker, who helped facilitate the event, these chats aim to “help plan grants for years to come that will help build up communities in Kosciusko County.”
Roughly 75 Milford residents came out for the event at the Milford Community Center.
“This is the largest crowd we’ve had at any of these chats,” Becker said to the crowd of enthusiastic Milford residents. “You even beat out Warsaw.”
The crowd was diverse, filled with members from many different backgrounds. Alongside civic-minded Milford inhabitants sat representatives from Harvest with a Heart, Milford Kiwanis, Milford Lions Club, Milford Town Council, the Kosciusko County Redevelopment Commission and others.
Although each came to the meeting with different priorities, the group’s frame of mind was unified: Milford is great in many ways, but they wanted to make it even better.
“The first thing we’d like to ask you is, ‘what do you like best about living in Milford?’” said Cheri Becker, another consultant.
The crowd had no shortage of good things to say about their town. Among the primary Milford highlights listed were the family-friendly, community-oriented residents of the town and their willingness to assist others in need.
“The fire department, in particular, will crawl to your house if they have to,” said one attendee.
Other highlighted strong points were the town’s good infrastructure, its quiet nature, the library and Harvest with a Heart’s programs, how safe the town was to raise kids in, the low property taxes and strong support for small businesses.
As for what Milford was missing, primary points included lack of places for seniors to gather and socialize/exercise, a way over the train tracks when a train is stopped in town, a gym/playground for pre-high school kids to use and ways to integrate cultures, particularly Milford’s Hispanic community.
The most prominent issues voiced at the meeting revolved around affordability, including affordable child care and housing, and dealing with Milford’s drug issue.
The high cost of child care, which was cited by several residents as the reason why many parents have to stay home instead of working, is prohibitive to many Milford parents.
On top of being expensive, Milford’s housing situation was described as “very limited” by several attendees. Homes and apartments are often taken within a day of becoming available, sometimes before they even officially go on the market.
After the first two topics, Mark Becker asked the crowd, “If you had a magic wand for one big change, what would you use it for?” Top answers included teaching kids how to work responsibly and not become entitled, getting a handle of drug abuse and its effects and developing a central hub for connecting foster children and parents, similar to the way the K21 Health Pavilion brings heath-focused groups together.
To wrap up the evening, the Beckers brought up four topics that had proved to be the hottest topics at previous Hometown Chats: housing, planning/vision, workforce prep and child care.
By and large, attendees agreed Wawasee Community School Corp. did an excellent job of preparing youth for the workforce.
Regarding planning and vision, several community members voiced the idea that there should be stronger code enforcement within the town.
For housing, attendees wanted more senior and family housing as well as safer income-based housing, stating that some former Milford residents had not felt safe raising children in Milford’s current income-based units.
For child care, residents felt that Milford child care was limited by lack of qualified staff, citing the fact that factory wages are often too lucrative to turn down for low-income individuals who might otherwise work in child care.
KCCF’s findings from the Hometown Chats will be released on their website and in their e-newsletter during fall of this year, likely October.
