By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Two faces you’ll often see at town hall meetings in smaller communities across Kosciusko County are Amy Roe and Peggy Friday.
Roe is the community coordinator who has overseen the county’s HELP grant and Friday became the executive director of KEDCO last year.
The two are not contractually joined at the hip, but Roe has office space in the KEDCO office, and the two work well together.
Roe describes the work between the towns, her and Friday as “a beautiful symbiotic relationship of preparation meeting opportunity.”
Friday adds, “Amy and I work closely, as well as the KEDCO team, when it comes to our small communities,’ Friday said during a taping of In The Know, a public affairs show that airs on weekends on Kensington Digital Media radio stations.
“She’s been a really great link,” Friday said.
Together, they’re providing support to small towns that have often traditionally been lacking.
Some of Roe’s projects have included establishing broadband for Sidney, a sidewalk project in Piereton and plans for more murals in Etna Green.
This is the fourth year of HELP, which has relied on money from OCRA and used local money from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Sidney’s broadband investment has opened the door for “a new renewed hope” for other improvements, Rowe told the County Council on Thursday night.
Some programs have already come to fruition, and several will be completed this year and celebrated with a handful of ribbon cuttings this spring and summer. One of those will be the first phase of the Chinworth Bridge trail along Old Road 30 west of Warsaw.
Many other efforts are coming together.
Rowe is now working with Leesburg on a sidewalk project that will coordinate with a trail that the county parks board will soon consider.
In Claypool, Roe and KEDCO are now working toward supporting a strategic plan for the town, she said.
Another effort has involved a water meter project in Milford.
And yet another is a food insecurity program that will launch soon.
“We Lead Kosciusko,” another initiative, will work to energize community involvement and is just now getting underway.
Roe credits her boss, Kosciusko County Commissioner Cary Grongienr for having a vision to help connect the dots.
Her job was expanded to full-time at some point after arriving in 2022.
“His dream was to be able to help support the small communities. To have somebody come alongside them, to speak to them in a language they understand and to be able to help them to navigate the systems.”
Roe said they continue to look at more programs and anyone interested can learn more by going to the county’s HELP page.
You can hear the entire conversation with Roe and Friday this weekend on In the Know, the public affairs show on Kensington Digital Media radio stations.
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In The Know can be heard at the following times:
News Now Warsaw (99.7 FM and 1480 AM):
Fridays at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Saturdays at 7 a.m.
Sundays at 7 a.m. & 2 p.m.
WRSW (107.3):
Sundays at 6 a.m.
Willie (103.5 FM):
Sundays at 6 a.m.
