A 'stellar' year for Delphi

DELPHI, Ind. (WLFI) - Delphi has had a year for the books.

"It's been crazy in the best way possible," Carroll County Economic Development Cooperation Executive Director Laura Walls said.

A crazy year that, Walls said, has brought a lot of attention to the city of Delphi.

"It's been a lot of interest in commercial development and happening simultaneously with the Hoosier Heartland Highway being completed. It's really generated a lot of buzz and interest in investors," Walls said.

Last May Delphi was named one of 2012's Stellar Communities, receiving more than $17 million in state grants. Since then the city has been hard at work completing all of the paperwork required to carry out the projects that will use the grant money.

The Delphi Preservation Society will use $2.5 million to renovate the Delphi Opera House. The Opera House advisory board chair Anita Werling said the preservation society is moving past what she called the "paperwork" stage.

"We're virtually completed through that phase and now we are working on the final stages of revising the floor plans for what the opera house will look like when it's completed, probably in another month we'll be unveiling that," Werling said.

Other projects include rebuilding the facades of buildings downtown. KJG Architect Barry Knechtel said he has visited with local businesses downtown to start replacing store fronts.

"We're asking them what they want to see done with their building and what problems they've had and what work they've done to try and convert these buildings back to their more historic characteristics," Knechtel said.

"It's still going to be the same quaint downtown that we love today, but it's just going to be the best version of itself," Walls said.

A "Stellar" version set to be complete by 2015.