Governor pays Jay a visit

Indiana’s governor visited Jay County Friday to learn more about Jay County High School’s career and technical education programs and discuss his plans to address issues that impact the community.

Gov. Eric Holcomb was welcomed by a number of local officials, school administrators and students while he toured the robotics, manufacturing and technical education facilities at the school. The visit highlighted one of the five pillars for Holcomb’s agenda as governor, developing a 21st century skilled and ready workforce.

Holcomb said he intends to keep education as the state’s biggest priority and to cede major education decisions to local leaders.

“I’m a big believer in local concerns and decisions being made at the local level,” Holcomb said. He said the state will make it a priority to prepare the state’s workforce for the changing future, through technical and vocational education programs.

In an interview at Koffee Kup diner after his tour of Jay County High School, Holcomb laid out his thoughts on how to tackle the ongoing nationwide opioid crisis, that has hit Indiana and Jay County hard.

“These are real social issues that tear at the fabric of our state spirit,” Holcomb said. “This conversation has evolved from not talking about it to talking about it to taking action about it … We have to make sure that locally we’re able to treat and get folks on a path to recovery. It is potentially one of the biggest challenges we face.”

Holcomb stressed the importance of attacking the crisis from different angles, by beefing up prevention efforts, recovery options and enforcement.

“This scourge does not discriminate,” Holcomb said. “It poisons the brain. It doesn’t care how smart you are or where you’re from. I was struck when one of our premier global flagship companies that employ a lot of PhD scientists … they mentioned that when they did drug tests, they’re not surprised when they get positives.”

Jim McClelland, Holcomb’s newly appointed executive director for drug prevention, treatment and and enforcement, will be back in Jay County on Feb. 23 to participate in the A Better Life - Brianna’s Hope panel discussion at Jay County High School.

In addition to tackling drug abuse problems, Holcomb also hopes to continue the Indiana Regional Cities initiative that was started by Gov. Mike Pence in 2016.

“While there’s a trend to move to urban areas, what makes our state more attractive is when we start to think regionally,” Holcomb said. “You attract people when you have a quality of place.”

The Regional Cities Initiative awarded $42 million to the state’s North Central, Northeast and Southwest regions in 2016. By renewing the program, Holcomb will allow more regions to compete for additional funding that can be used for economic development and revitalization.

“Job creators are looking at vibrant regions,” Holcomb said, comparing the necessity of the state’s continuing development to that of a small business. “For a small business to compete, you have to grow or someone’s gonna grow on top of you. It’s going to take collaboration and discipline from leaders at all levels.”

Holcomb also has made infrastructure improvement a major part of his agenda, and he stressed that he doesn’t mean just roads an bridges. He plans to conduct a survey of the state’s water, to identify major problems and determine maintenance needs. And for cities like Portland that face major flooding issues and expensive wastewater improvement projects, Holcomb said state grants from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs will be used to help fund major improvements.

“OCRA gets involved in these kind of issues, recognizing how important these (infrastructure needs) are and gets involved in assisting,” Holcomb said. As one of his five major pillars, Holcomb hopes to create a 20-year infrastructure plan to fund repairs across the state.