When Hobart, Indiana, began receiving new revenue from local data centers, city leaders decided to put some of that money directly back into the community.
They created a rebate program that helps residents cover the cost of home improvements. The idea is simple: residents make eligible upgrades to their homes, submit their expenses to the city, and can receive money back to help offset the cost.
For Dale Combs, a minister in Hobart, that program came at exactly the right time.
His family’s heating and cooling system was 25 years old and needed to be replaced. They had been saving for a new system, but with finances tight, Dale expected it could be another year or two before they had enough money set aside.
Then, after church one day, a friend told him about Hobart’s rebate program.
“Having that rebate really was a blessing to us,” Dale says. “It helped us to make sure that we got it done, because we probably would have been waiting another year or two until we saved the money.”
For Dale and his family, the impact was immediate. A new HVAC system meant reliable heat in the winter and air conditioning through Indiana’s summers. More importantly, it meant they could take care of a major household expense without having to put it off for another year.
Dale knows his family isn’t alone.
As a minister, he spends much of his time with people in the community and understands how difficult a major unexpected expense can be for families already watching every dollar.
“There are many residents in the city of Hobart,” he says. “Probably a lot of them are in the same situation I’m in, where finances are always tight.”
That is what makes the rebate program meaningful to Dale. Revenue coming into Hobart from data centers isn’t staying on a balance sheet or existing only as a number in the city budget. Through programs like this one, residents can see that investment show up in their own homes.
For Dale, that sends an important message about the relationship between new development and the people who already call Hobart home.
“By the city doing this, it is the city’s way of being able to say we care about our citizens,” Dale reflects. “We care about our community. We want to help them in any way we can, and this is one of those ways.”
For a minister who has spent much of his life thinking about how communities care for their own, the lesson is straightforward. New investment can mean more than new buildings or new revenue. When that revenue is put back into the community, it can help families with needs that are much closer to home.
For Dale, it’s proof that when a community invests in new opportunities, that investment can find its way right back home