Plenty to see around Jay County (04/11/07)

It's a problem we've all run into.

Someone from out of town is coming for a visit, and we have to entertain them. So, what the heck do you show a visitor to Jay County?

Plenty, as it turns out.

The visitor in this case was a young guy named Dmitry Polyakov. He was born in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, though he's ethnically Russian rather than Kyrgyz. The past few years, he's been living in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he's the local leader of an organization trying to instill values of civil society into the former Soviet Union.

Dmitry and I met in 2003 in Bishkek, when I was doing a study for Freedom House and he was assigned as my interpreter/assistant.

He's been in the U.S. of late, doing a fellowship at the National Council of State Legislatures and an internship at the Colorado General Assembly.

Given our friendship, an invitation to Indiana seemed appropriate.

But then that old question popped up: Where do we take him?

Fortunately, an exchange of e-mails developed some clues. Some things I suggested didn't interest him, others did, and still other possibilities surfaced from his questions and suggestions.

So, last week, when he rolled in we were more than prepared.

Here's how we spent last Wednesday. You can be the judge of whether he will go home with a sense of local life.

We started at the office, checking in with the newspaper staff and introducing Dmitry to all and sundry.

About 10 a.m., we headed over to the Jay County Jail, or more formally, the Jay County Security Center. Dmitry, who probably has seen too many westerns, expressed an interest in meeting a real American sheriff.

Ray Newton was more than happy to oblige.

For a full hour, the sheriff took us through the entire facility, answering questions, explaining the oddities of Indiana law, and outlining a long list of issues that lie ahead. I know I learned a lot, and I'm sure Dmitry did as well.

We then stopped by the Portland Area Chamber of Commerce to see the 1910 Haynes in the Community Resource Center.

Vicki Tague answered Dmitry's questions and welcomed him to the county.

From there, we went to the offices of The Portland Foundation, where Doug Inman explained the role of community foundations, something nearly unique to America and often taken for granted by the rest of us.

As we left the foundation, we bumped into Stephanie Arnold of the Jay Community Center, who insisted that we at least drive by the facility to give it a look. We did just that when we made a brief stop at Freedom Park.

Then there was time for a nickel tour of Arts Place.

With that wrapped up, we went home to meet up with Connie and have a bowl of soup to take the edge off a chilly day.

After lunch, we headed out in Connie's Jeep for an abbreviated tour of Meshberger Brothers Stone Corp. where she works, driving down to the bottom of the quarry and being filled in on the geological history of the region.

We then hot-footed it back to the office to make sure all had gone well with the day's paper. It was about 10 until 2 when I grabbed the day's deposit, only to learn that the mayor was on the phone. I'd mentioned to Bruce Hosier that Dmitry was going to be in town, and he wanted to make sure we connected.

So, in very short order, I did the banking, we stopped at the mayor's office where Dmitry was given a commemorative piece made by Falcon Mint, then we made it out to FCC (Indiana) for a scheduled tour at 2 p.m. with Eric Garringer.

The next hour was an immersion in FCC's quality-driven corporate culture and, for Dmitry, an exciting look at the latest in American manufacturing.

But we weren't done yet.

A little after 3 p.m., we zipped back to the courthouse. Dmitry's interested in the law, so I had touched base with both judges - Brian Hutchison and Joel Roberts - about meeting with him.

Over the course of an hour, we met not only with both judges but also with county clerk Jane Ann Runyon who was busy testing election equipment that day. We just missed prosecutor Bob Clamme, but it was probably just as well. We were running out of time.

About 4 p.m., we took a break at Sharlette's Fudgery, having a Coke and chatting with Shar. While we were there, I used my cell phone to call Mike Schwartz in Geneva.

Dmitry had expressed interest in visiting an Amish home while he was here, and Mike was making the arrangements.

A few minutes later, we were on the road to Limberlost Construction. Mike performed the introductions, and we headed back into Jay County with Toby Swartzentruber to stop at his family's home south of Jay City.

The welcome at the Swartzentruber home was warm and genuine. Dmitry asked a few questions, answered a few questions, spoke a few words of Russian for Toby's mother-in-law and father-in-law, and left with a couple of loaves of bread and a plate of breakfast rolls.

A full enough day? We weren't done.

After touching base at home, we picked up Connie and the three of us went out to Mark and Ruth Twigg's home, where Mark was having an open house to show off his new wood-turning shop and a gallery area.

After that, we headed home for dinner.

So, you tell me. Is there anything of interest locally to show a visitor?

I could write a column just as long as this listing the things we missed: The Glass Museum, Saint-Gobain's bottle production, a CAFO, Balbec's cabin, the historical museum, the antique mall, John Jay Center for Learning, Magic Valley, the Limberlost, and on and on and on and on.

Nothing to show visitors?

Tell me about it.

But tell me later.

Right now, I'm exhausted from all this hospitality.[[In-content Ad]]