July 7, 2008

A mid-year community check-up

Independence Day is a benchmark of sorts. Although not true, it seems as if summer is half-over already, perhaps because the summer solstice is indeed past and the days are beginning to get a bit shorter.

We begin the second half of another year. Many businesses do a mid-year review, perhaps a budgeting adjustment; it’s a good time to “take stock.”

Having just completed our annual Progress Edition, it’s not a bad time for Bluffton and Wells County to “take stock” as well.

— Local Government Review Task Force: It’s good to see a familiar — and capable — face take a leadership role in this innovative effort.

“All we’re trying to do is service the customer better and take advantage of modern technology,” task force chairman Bob Hayden told us last week.

Hayden has already made a significant mark on the community as a Kroger executive that helped bring major employer Peytons Northern to town, and capably served six years as our economic development director.

The effort is in good hands.

— Wells County Leadership Academy: After more than a year in the incubator, the academy is gearing up for their first series of classes in September.

This is a notable development in providing opportunities for local people and local companies. Better leadership can only make for better things.

If you’d like to know more about this, you have a wonderful opportunity Thursday morning at the monthly “Business Before Hours” event at the Arts, Commerce and Visitors Centre.

— Bluffton’s “West Side Story”: With the Indiana Bio-Energy plant bringing their full crew on board this week, they remain on target to produce their first gallon of ethanol in late August.

And that firm’s $177 million investment on Bluffton’s west side is only a part of that story: Alexin, Star Engineering, Edge Manufacturing, Peytons Northern ... and, we understand, another new business on Adams Street will be announced soon.

— Regional Food Incubator: This effort has garnered even more regional attention to Wells County, and caused even more questions from friends and colleagues in the region about the encouraging economic activity here.

The emailed survey to those who attended hit the cyberwaves over the weekend. Expect to see a decision by Labor Day on how this will (or will not) proceed.

— Inclusiveness Initiative: The effort to make Bluffton and Wells County an “Inclusive Community” has, at least by outward appearances, stalled. The schools may be doing concrete work with the lessons brought by Ruby Payne and Dr. Phil DeVol, but if they have, the work has been somewhat invisible.

Community follow-up meant to assist “pulling people out of poverty” has been equally invisible, but with three of the local leaders who have been key elements in the push (Mayor Ted Ellis, United Way executive director Pamela Beckford, and Bluffton Regional Medical Center executive and community activist Tamra Boucher) having attended a national summit on the topic, we are hopeful that efforts in education and assistance to those who will seek it will be developing.

Yes, these are troubling times: gas prices, inflationary pressures, the auto industry struggling, a bear market on Wall Street. But you can’t say local leaders are just sitting around wringing their hands.

All in all, it’s pretty hard not to give ourselves an “A” for the first six months of 2008. But as any teacher can tell you, getting a good grade at mid-term is not the time to “slack off,” slow down, or rest on your laurels.

There’s still much work to do.

MARK MILLER

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