This has been a great year for industry expansion projects in Crawfordsville and Montgomery County with over half a dozen of our top companies already expanding or planning to invest over 200 million dollars in technology upgrades. Current local companies reinvesting is the best economic indicator that the local economy is healthy and we expect that to continue.

 

The Montgomery County unemployment rate in August 07’ was 3.6 % which means our employers are providing plenty of job opportunities. The Median household wage for Montgomery County in 2004 was $43,486; higher than the state average for the same year which was $43,217. As a comparison to a county similar in size to ours, Putnam County came in lower than us as well at $42,273.

 

The VeraSun ethanol plant is in full production and having a positive impact on our economy.

Soybeans ranked number one and corn production ranked number five in 2004 makes Montgomery County one of the top agricultural producers in the state. With these two products playing a larger role in energy production we expect a positive impact on the agriculture sector.

 

For a community our size, we do very well in factors that matter such as education, healthcare, infrastructure and services. Our workforce attraction and retention programs are some of the best in the state and are being benchmarked by many other counties. The MCED Bright Future company partners are sharing costs to advertise our community and have their own recruiting web-site, (HoosierEmployer.com) which is expanding their workforce availability.

 

Wabash College is an important asset to the community and our quality of life. The college contributes in many ways to the wealth of this community. They are one of our top employers

and one of the country’s most important knowledge creation institutions.

 

The Ivy Tech Community College/ Montgomery County Instructional Center doubled in enrollment this year and we are just getting started with our first Purdue classes at the MCED SkillsNet training facility. Post secondary education is a key component to success as companies increase their plant technologies.  Work skills, work ethics, and an entrepreneurial culture are important factors and also need to increase for companies to remain competitive.

 

County officials have completed the state designation of the sanitary district along the Nucor Road Industrial Corridor and are negotiating with private companies to build and operate sewer services in the corridor. Nucor and MCED are co-marketing the available properties in the industrial corridor to build on our already growing steel industry cluster.

 

The most important bit of progress made this year may be the new partnership between the city of Crawfordsville and Montgomery County Economic Development.

 

Since that alliance was reestablished in April this year MCED has worked with the Crawfordsville Redevelopment Commission to forge strategic and marketing plans for the Commerce Park, successfully designate the park “Shovel Ready”, and implement the most effective zoning strategy.

 

 We now have the appropriate marketing tools required to approach professional site selection consulting firms and companies.

 

The collaboration will also allow us to make better progress on cleaning up the old Culver Hospital and Mid-States brownfield sites. Those two sites will require cooperation between the city, county and state to turn them back into useful properties.

 

One of the differences in our current approach to economic development is the holistic approach and regional attitude we are using to market our sites and community.

 

Marketing both the Nucor Road Industrial Corridor and the Crawfordsville Commerce Park together greatly increases the possibility of success and improves the overall efficiency of the effort. We also sell the entire county to include our smaller towns and agribusiness, not just Crawfordsville.  A new regional attitude that includes Purdue and Indianapolis International Airport among our community assets is also being incorporated into the strategic plan.

 

MCED has received a grant from Duke Energy to design quality marketing materials for the Industrial Corridor, Commerce Park and the community.  The site selection consultant visits for 08’ have been identified and we will be one of the sponsor communities along on the state’s marketing trip to Chicago next year. Only 6 communities get to go on this coveted trip, and MCED will be there to represent our development sites and available buildings.

 

We have our challenges but the future looks bright for Crawfordsville and Montgomery County. Collaboration, good planning and measured growth ensure the community will remain a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

 

Bill Henderson

Executive Director