HOPE — The town of Hope received over a quarter-million in grant dollars through a program that provides state matching funds to local governments to improve and maintain local roads.
Hope received $238,948.84 in Community Crossings Matching Grant (CCMG) funds for 2026, according to Jason Eckart, town manager.
The CCMG program, administered by the Indiana Department of Transportation, is intended to advance community infrastructure projects, strengthen local transportation networks and improve Indiana’s roads and bridges. CCMG money comes from Indiana’s state road-funding revenue via a sales tax on gas.
Local government units are able to apply for the funding once per year, and required to provide varying matching local funds, depending on the size of a community.
Hope has a population less than 10,000 people, so the town is required to pitch in 20% of the overall cost of a given project, in this case just under $60,000.
The program last legislative session underwent big-time changes, significantly decreasing the funding local governments have at their disposal and separating out how the funds will be distributed via matching grants, as well as a direct distribution component beginning in 2027, which requires local governments to implement a wheel tax to have access to.
The change most evident for the 2026 distributions is that rather than an average of $260 million in matching grant funds awarded annually, just $100 million was awarded. And half of the funding must go to counties and towns with a population less than 50,000.
Eckart in an email said that the town was grateful to be awarded the amount, which will go towards nine streets in Hope that will receive a combination of mill and overlay, full depth replacement and asphalt rejuvenation.
“We try very hard to be innovative by looking at all types of products to stretch our small road budget,” Eckart said. “This CCMG award does wonders for this community.”
Roads in Hope to receive work through the funding include: Broad Street, Meadow Place, Jackson Street, Scott Street, Brookside Drive, Neal Drive, Liberty Way, Julia Lane and Manor Drive, Eckart said.
Bartholomew County, on the other hand, will receive no grant funding through the program next year, something that the county commissioners were not pleased about.
The city of Columbus received $1 million through the program for next year, the maximum it could have received. Elizabethtown received $28,272, per INDOT.
