Shauver starts her new role on Monday

The county has been without a director of community development for seven months.

That drought will end next week.

Christy Shauver will start her new role as director of Jay County Community Development on Monday.

“I want to help the community,” said Shauver, who closed out her year as a teacher at Redkey Elementary School last week. “I’ve helped children, and now I want to do it on a bigger spectrum.”

Jay County Development Corporation executive director Travis Richards announced the selection of Shauver for the position during JCDC’s June 1 meeting.

Richards and JCDC’s executive committee handled the hiring process. Shauver was selected from a field of eight applicants.

He said he was looking for someone with effective written and spoken communication skills as well as the ability to work with a wide variety of people.

“Her experience and her skill set is the right one for the job,” said Richards.

Shauver takes over the role from Ami Huffman, who resigned in mid-November after 15 years in the position. Huffman had come under fire because of a comment she made on Facebook regarding the Oct. 25 “American Patriots Day” event in Portland.

Richards said the first priorities for Shauver will be to undergo grant administrator training and learn about the American Rescue Plan Act to be able to help local communities help facilitate the use of funds from the federal coronavirus relief measure.

“The guidance is changing pretty routinely these days so that’s an uphill battle, but I’m sure we can get there,” said Richards.

She will also undergo economic development and community development training when those sessions are available.

Shauver will begin working to get up to speed on other ongoing and upcoming local projects alongside JCDC administrative assistant Jodi Hayes. Those include the Pennville library expansion project that is being mostly funded from money the Jay! Region received for being a finalist for the 2019 Stellar Communities designation, the proposed Meridian Street stormwater project, railroad warning sign replacement and Community Crossings road paving work.

“Just getting familiar with what it is that I’m supposed to do,” said Shauver of her first goals. “I mean, this is a whole new ballgame for me. I’m walking out of education into this role, so it’s brand new for me.”

She would also be heavily involved in the Stellar Communities process — the program was suspended in 2020 and this year because of the coronavirus pandemic — if it returns in 2022 and the county chooses to participate.

“I’m kind of operating under the presumption that it will be there,” said Richards. “And if so, we have to take a really hard look at it and figure out how we want to go about it.”

Shauver, a 1994 Jay County High School graduate, went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University in 2003. She has been a teacher for 16 years, first at East Jay Middle School, then East Elementary School and for the last four years at Redkey Elementary. (She also earned a master’s degree in special education from Ball State last year.)

In addition to being a teacher, Shauver is also heavily involved at Fellowship Baptist Church leading Kingdom Kids and Vacation Bible School and teaching Sunday School. She said encouragement from Jay County residents pushed her to apply for the community development position.

“I’m humbled to have this opportunity to work for our community,” she said. “I’m really excited to see what I can do.”