JCDC to work on strategic plan

It’s time to strategize.
Jay County Development Corporation’s board spent much of Tuesday’s meeting discussing the need for a new strategic plan. The last such plan was completed in 2008.
The board, which did not take any action because of lack of a quorum, also discussed ideas for using the economic development funds Jay County will receive as part of the Bluff Point Wind Energy Center project and got updates on a variety of projects.
JCDC executive director Bill Bradley noted the need to go through the strategic planning process again, given that the 2008 effort was designed as a three-year plan. He noted that other initiatives, specifically the 20/20 Vision project, filled the gap in the interim, but that he feels its important for the organization to refocus.
The goal is to work on the plan in the late winter and early spring, with a target of setting goals for the next three years and possibly updating the JCDC mission statement.
JCDC board president Barb Street and Bradley plan to continue to talk about the process with a goal of submitting a request for proposals to hire a facilitator.
"We really want to use this as a springboard for the next three or four years for the corporation and really set some new goals," Bradley said. "There’s a lot of new faces from when we last did our planning process. … Sometimes with a change of people you get different ideas, and I think that’s a good thing."
Bradley noted that the previous strategic plan included making JCDC financially viable, improving workforce development, settling on a structure for how economic development and community development work together and bringing in "future thinkers."
Also Tuesday, Bradley updated the board on plans for nearly $1 million in economic development funds Jay County will receive in four annual payments beginning in 2017 from the wind farm project. He presented a proposal to Jay County Commissioners last week that would include using about half of that money to develop Portland’s industrial park by adding one road off of country road 100 East and extending Performance Drive to the north. Plans also include using the money to purchase land adjacent to or near Dunkirk’s industrial park and converting some of the county’s stone roads to hard surfaces.
"We have an opportunity here to do some very positive things, I think," said Bradley.
Huffman reported that the new Redkey Fire Station is nearly complete, with the department planning to move in this winter. Other projects that are underway include a sidewalk running from Judge Haynes Elementary School east on High Street and then north on Middle Street to Votaw Street as part of the Safe Routes to School program and the construction of a senior citizens’ center at Jay Community Center.
She noted that Dunkirk has sold all of the nine original properties on which blighted homes were torn down as part of Indiana’s Hardest Hit Fund Blight Elimination Program. Another six homes are slated to be demolished in 2017 with funding the city had left over from its $176,000 grant.
Huffman also said she hopes to begin working with Redkey on a downtown development plan so that it will be ready when the sewer separation project is complete.
Bradley added that he has had a couple of discussions with businesses interested in purchasing the former Wal-Mart building on Meridian Street on the north side of Portland.
In other business, the board:
•Was reminded that it will vote on budget adoption for 2017 at its Dec. 6 meeting, which will also include JCDC’s annual Christmas open house. Bradley said he expects the budget to remain much the same as it was for 2016.
•Heard updates from Jay County Chamber of Commerce executive director Dean Sanders on several events, including Shop Jay County First (Oct. 26), moonlight shopping (Oct. 27) and Winterfest (Nov. 17 through 20). He noted that the characters in attendance at this year’s Kids’ Breakfast and Karnival will be from "Beauty and the Beast."
•Got a reminder from Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman that a project to replace an 18-inch sewer line with a 42-inch line along the north side of the Salamonie River east of Blaine Pike is underway. The city will also be replacing a collapsed sewer line that ran under a house that has been demolished at 509 W. High Street.
•Learned from Dan Watson that Fort Recovery Industries, 170 E. 100 North, recently expanded and paved its parking lot.