UC Bicentennial Committee thanks commissioners for efforts to give Bicentennial money and voice the need for more money

By John Estridge

Union County Bicentennial Committee finally received the $30,000 pledged to the committee but delayed due to a lack of communication.

Bicentennial Committee members Melissa Spillers and Linda Brookbank thanked UC commissioner Howard Curry for helping the committee to receive the $30,000. That amount was pledged to the committee by the UC Tourism Board in early December 2020. However, Spillers reported at the March 18 commissioners’ meeting, the committee had yet to receive the money and that fact put the Bicentennial in doubt.

What was discovered was that a contract had not been signed by the UC Tourism Board and the Union County Development Corp., which had delayed the process of getting the signed contract to UC Auditor Cheryl Begley in order to release the money. UCDC is a conduit for the money to be used by the Bicentennial Committee.

A tourism meeting was held Wednesday, April 7, where the Bicentennial Committee received the $30,000. Spillers said the committee has received an additional $9,500 in sponsorships.

“We want to thank the businesses and the sponsors because without them the $30,000 from the innkeepers would not have been enough to do this,” Spillers said.

Spillers said that still leaves the committee $10,600 short in planned expenditures.

To put the planned expenditures for the Bicentennial in perspective, Union County Sesquicentennial organizers spent $40,000 for a company to come in and plan the Sesquicentennial events. Additionally, one person was hired and the utilities and rent paid for 18 months for an office and place to sell Sesquicentennial memorabilia. That amount for the office space and a person to run it was in addition to the $40,000 spent on the company. According to the inflation calculator on the Internet, just the $40,000 in 1971 is equivalent to $259,766.91 50 years later in 2021. Thus, the $51,000 planned to be spent by the committee is less than 20 percent of just the money the county leaders spent on the company in 1971.

Spillers said the Bicentennial Committee has pledged to do anything the members’ can to raise the still-needed money.

“If we have to stand in the middle of the street and beg, we will,” Spillers said. “We believe we can raise $10,000.”

People who want to donate to the Bicentennial celebration can send checks to the auditor’s office at 26 West Union Street, Liberty, Indiana 47353. Commissioner Tim Williams said people can drop off donations in the Treasurer’s Box on the outside of the courthouse but just mark on the envelope it is a Bicentennial donation.

Also, the Bicentennial is in need of volunteers. People can go to the Bicentennial Facebook page and offer to volunteer. The Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/Union-County-Indiana-Bicentennial-2021-101778181421015