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By the time you recycle your copy of The News-Banner Thursday night, we hope there is one message you’ll remember from this week.
That message comes from a cliché, but it hits the nail on the head.
Despite being in a nationwide recession for the past several months, the glass is still half full in Wells County, and that means progress.
By the end of the week, our goal is to show you progress in Wells County in four categories: business, communities, people and education. We are trying to do that more than 50 times following months of research, interviews and writing.
Beginning yesterday and continuing until Thursday, The News-Banner is publishing its annual Progress Edition to highlight different people, communities, businesses, technologies, schools and much, much more. A different section will appear for four days to tell you — and show you with pictures, graphics and sidebars — how Wells County is forging ahead despite an outlook that can at times appear to be all gloomy.
Looks, however, can be deceiving.
We could easily focus on the negative. Our Page 1 story in Saturday’s edition, for example, explained how the unemployment rate in Wells County jumped to 11.4 percent in May — an increase of 1.4 percentage points since April. But look deeper at those numbers and you’ll see that Wells County is still maintaining the second-lowest unemployment rate in northeast Indiana.
So why do we think the glass is still half full?
• Within the last 365 days, about 100 new well-paying jobs came to Bluffton as new companies opened their doors on the city’s southwest side. We saw the investment of one-third of one billion dollars turn into reality.
• The job growth, we believe, is and will continue to lead to a trickle-down effect throughout the community that will benefit many others, from sales at restaurants to newspaper advertising and purchases.
• Some 135 acres will soon be “shovel-ready” on the Bluffton’s southwest side as city and county leaders continue their efforts to bring more industry — and more jobs — to Wells County.
• Steve Baker, principal at Bluffton High School, will take his message of advocacy for public schools across the state through his participation in the Indiana Association of School Principals. Baker was vice president last year and is serving as president-elect this year. Next year, he will become president. He will meet with educational leaders across the state and nation to speak up for public education and Wells County schools.
• Three out of every four seniors who graduated from Wells County’s public high schools this year plan to pursue higher education in the coming months — the second highest percentage in the past five years.
This list could continue for several inches, but we’ll leave some surprises for you to discover.
Yes, we have hit a bump in the road. Wells County, however, is forging ahead with all due diligence. Life here in Bluffton and Wells County is still good and will continue to get better as we create innovative ways to move ahead despite a downturn in the economy.
In about 90 minutes, 90 percent of you may forget 90 percent of this column, but remember these nine words: The glass is still half full in Wells County.
By JUSTIN PEEPER
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
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