JCDC keeps eye on prize

Jay County is one community.
East Central Indiana is one region.
In order to have success in economic development, they must act as such.
That’s the message from Bill Bradley as he looks toward what needs to be done on the economic development front this year.
“We’ve got to look at where we can create natural relationships and alliances,” said Bradley, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, which will hold its first full board meeting of the year at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Community Resource Center, 118 S. Meridian St., Portland. “When we go out and market, we don’t market just Jay County. You can’t.
“You’ve got to market the region.”
Bradley emphasized the need for cooperation and teamwork among cities and towns within Jay County, and counties in the area as a whole, in order to attract new businesses and good jobs.
Essentially, he said, success breeds success. What’s good for Dunkirk, or Redkey, or Portland, is good for the entire county. And when good things happen in Delaware, Randolph, Blackford or other area counties, they have an impact throughout the region.
He encouraged partnership, saying together the region can attract help from the state much more effectively than individual municipalities or counties can alone, and added that he believes Ball State University can help bind an area that doesn’t have close ties to a major media market.
“Ball State is the critical catalyst, I think, for a lot of regional development,” Bradley said. “Ball State can be the catalyst that can bring all this together. I think that’s the unifying issue. I mean, you look at the number of alumni in a seven- or eight-county area, it’s staggering.”
One partnership he’s already working on is creating a local jobs website in conjunction with Randolph County that would be similar to Hometown Opportunity, http://hometownopportunity.com. That site currently focuses on Mercer, Auglaize and Darke counties in Ohio in an effort to recruit local talent to local jobs.
In terms of attracting new jobs to Jay County, Bradley noted that Redkey, Pennville and Bryant all have enough space available if companies are interested in locating there. But, he said, the industrial parks in Portland and Dunkirk need some attention.
He noted a goal of building a road ending in a cul-de-sac in the 60 acres of former XPLEX extreme sports park land in Portland’s industrial park on county road 100 North between Fort Recovery Industries and IOM Grain. Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman, who along with Bradley noted that there are already several companies that have shown interest in locating there, said he hopes use Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) money to accomplish that in 2016.
There are two 10-acre sites available in Dunkirk’s industrial park, but Bradley said he believes it would make sense to at least get an option to buy additional land in the area for future development.
“I think we need to actively try to make that happen,” agreed Dunkirk Mayor Gene Ritter. “I think our whole county needs to focus more on economic development as far as companies go. And I think you can always use more land to do that.”
Both Geesaman and Bradley discussed the need to make progress with the Sheller Globe south building on the west side of Bridge Street in Portland. The former Sheller Globe north building has been taken over and transformed by custom furniture company TLS By Design, but the south building continues to sit empty as it has since the mid 1980s.
Now in the city’s control, the south building is just a shell with all of the electrical and plumbing removed. All options, from demolition to redevelopment, for the building have been discussed.
“It’s time to make that decision,” said Geesaman. “Either tear the thing down … or go ahead and take the bids from the companies that are interested in it.”
Going beyond jobs, Bradley added that the county needs to look at solutions for its shortage of at-market housing.
Geesaman echoed that idea, saying there are simply not enough options for CEOs, plant managers and other professionals, who in many cases live outside of Portland or Jay County and commute to work here. The mayor said he’d like to see additional housing in the area near Rose Drive, which extends north from Tyson Road on the west side of the city, and that he plans to approach The Portland Foundation about funding for a housing study.
Effort continues to need to be made to create a community that will attract those professionals to want live in the county, Bradley added.
“It’s not about jobs, jobs, jobs anymore. It’s not just about jobs. It’s not just about investment. It’s creating a community people want to live in,” he said, noting schools, infrastructure and amenities. “Those are critical issues.”
That being said, Geesaman is hopeful that several local companies could announce expansions in 2016, with one that could come in the next month or two.
Such growth has been one of the county’s strength’s, Bradley said, something it can build on as it works toward continued development this year.
“I’m continually happy when I see the growth of FCC and Fort Recovery Industries, places like that that continue to add jobs and jobs and jobs,” said Bradley. “From that perspective, we’re very blessed. This community has been blessed with some very good employers.
“But we’ve got some things to work on … in 2016.”