FRANKFORT — Frankfort and Clinton County area residents have a busy fall ahead. The city is also pursuing a multimillion-dollar grant that could bring new playground equipment to its parks, Community Development Director Kimberly Black said Monday on WILO and Boone’s Best 102.7 FM’s Party Line.
The final summer concert of the season at Prairie Creek Park is Friday. It features The Flying Toasters and Time Travelers. The show was rescheduled after a rainy season that forced a couple of postponements.
Pumpkins and Pistons, a fall open house in downtown Frankfort, is Saturday:
– A shop hop runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
– A car show runs from 3 to 8 p.m. Unlike the usual Thursday Thunder events, this one will be held around the courthouse square, with streets blocked off in sections as spaces fill.
– Veterans Park will have vendors and yard games, including pumpkin tic-tac-toe.
– Shoppers can pre-order 2027 Shop Local cards.
Frankfort’s citywide garage sales are also this weekend. A map or list of participating addresses is expected.
Hometown Heroes Banners Return
The Hometown Heroes veteran signs will go back up around Nov. 1 and stay up through Veterans Day. Black said these are not the pole banners along Washington Avenue and downtown.
Family members can apply for a sign for $20, a one-time fee that covers the sign and its upkeep. After Veterans Day, the city collects and stores the signs so they can be used again in later years. Families can also borrow their sign for occasions such as a veteran’s Honor Flight welcome.
Operation Refresh
The city’s Operation Refresh program is tied to this year’s Community Crossings Matching Grant paving projects. Black said there are 12 or 14 paving projects this year.
The idea for ‘Operation Refresh’ came from residents. Where streets are already being paved and restriped, crews will also install new sign posts and signs and paint fire hydrants. The street department, code enforcement and building services are all working on it, and residents should see crews in those areas over the next couple of weeks. The city plans to repeat the program with each year’s paving projects.
Sparkling Success Series
The final Sparkling Success event of 2026 is Oct. 28. The featured speaker, Anne Hazlett, is a local resident with a long history of work in rural communities at Purdue University and at the state and federal levels. Registration is required. Black said the series will continue next year.
Downtown Momentum and Holidays
Black credited Prairie Creek Park, the Iron Block small-business space and downtown property owners’ building improvements with building momentum downtown. She called the Iron Block “something that we should all truly treasure” because it lets entrepreneurs without much capital get started.
She mentioned new murals downtown, including a new painting on the side of Delilah’s. Community members have suggested projects to the mayor’s office and the Redevelopment Commission.
Park Grant Could Upgrade Playgrounds
Black said Frankfort is one of a limited number of communities invited to apply for a $2.7 million parks grant funded by Lilly Endowment. The grant is aimed at smaller, rural communities, and applicants had to be invited before they could start planning.
“Not everyone was at the table, and we were, so to me that speaks volumes,” Black said.
The city is working with the North Central Indiana region on the application, along with the Community Foundation, regional partners and local organizations. Black said the timeline is tight. She was scheduled to join a planning call Monday afternoon with Healthy Communities.
Upgrading playground equipment is a top priority. Some of the equipment in city parks dates back to Black’s own childhood. The city would also like to add more ADA-accessible equipment so any child can use the park system.
Black said new equipment is expensive. She noted that the playground at Third Street Park cost more than $160,000 and “it’s not very big.”
“We just know that that’s been a concern of constituents and residents, of what can we do to kind of upgrade our playground equipment or our park system even more,” she said. She added that the grant would help “stretch those tax dollars.”
Frankfort has about eight city parks. About 13 or 14 full-time parks employees take care of them.
Survey Results Coming
Black said two community surveys have just closed: the ‘Beat the Heat’ grant survey and the ‘Comprehensive Plan’ survey. Official results aren’t available yet. The city will write plans based on the responses and then present them to the public for feedback.
A Full Weekend DowntownLooking ahead to the holidays:
– Small Business Saturday events are coming.
– Santa’s House will return to Prairie Creek Park.
– The Christmas parade is set for the first Saturday in December.
– The parks department has already started preparing the Christmas lights.
Residents can reach Black through her office or by email.
Also Monday, the Frankfort Common Council holds a special meeting tonight, September 28th at 6 p.m. at the Edward Jones Community 4-H Building at the Clinton County Fairgrounds. It was moved there to fit a larger crowd. DataOne is expected to give a presentation at this meeting.