Looking Back and Ahead: Town of Danville

Looking back and ahead, join The Republican over the next few weeks as we take a look at some of the ways the community has changed through 2025, while previewing things to expect in 2026, beginning with Danville. 

For Danville, much of 2025 consisted of what many may consider behind the scenes work. While the town did not see a great amount of physical developments in the form of buildings or projects, it did undergo a lot of infrastructure changes involving things like water systems and roadwork.

Speaking of road work, traffic seemed to be one of the town’s top priorities according to Manager, Mark Morgan. 

“We've got some traffic study committees. . .we just started a new thoroughfare plan to try and figure out alternatives.”

By alternatives, Morgan means ways around US 36. 

“I'm not a fan of using the word bypass, I think it just has such negative connotations. But I do want to really focus on what we're calling reliever roads, or at least reliever routes,” the Town Manager explained. 

Morgan believes a lot of said reliever roads already exist, and emphasized that focus needs to be shifted to making the public more knowledgeable of them. 

Other than traffic, “it’s been a busy year,” for Danville, Morgan said. 

Throughout ‘25, the Town has introduced new tools for economic development, worked with INDOT to address issues along 36, specifically around Miles Farm and the high school, they’ve encouraged project development near Walmart, and pursued commercial and industrial growth. 

“It’s what we need,” Morgan explained. “ We're seeing people, companies knocking on our door that never knocked on our door before, and that's exciting to us.”

As exciting as it may be, changes of sorts take time, many of which will carry into 2026. 

For instance, infrastructure. Going into this year, Danville will continue to develop their infrastructure in hopes to entice new businesses. 

“One of the biggest hurdles that we're going to see probably in the next four to five years, will be wastewater,” Morgan said. 

Not that the town is running out of wastewater capacity, but rather new mandates are requiring them to address different parts of the system. 

Other than water, roads again are on the discussion board for 2026. One location in particular is near Waste Management off 200 East. 

“We are trying to develop that road to our standards,” the Town Manager explained. The idea is to get the trash truck off the main roads to reduce congestion. “It’s just getting that first domino to fall,” Morgan added. 

Another notable section of roadwork is anticipated for 36 east of Danville, going into Avon. Though that section of road is owned by INDOT, changes they make will impact the Town. 

“We’ve been asking them to put in additional crosswalks, because we get a lot of traffic from the work release center,” Morgan shared. 

On the topic of making Danville more walkable, the Town is also in the process of applying for grants to increase trails. One thing Morgan mentioned specifically is the possible relocation of the iron bridge near the fire station. 

“We'd like to move it in parallel with US 36 right there, across White Lick Creek, and use it for pedestrians. As far as buildings are concerned, I don't know that we've got any real big projects,” Morgan went on. 

Aside from interest in the County Highway Garage, if it ever becomes available to the Town, Morgan didn’t mention any additional developments. 

As for other changes, the Town of Danville can also expect some internal differences with new staffing opportunities.