I attended the PIDCO (Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation) Annual Meeting today and was voted into a position on the Board of Directors. I have voiced some disappointment with PIDCO’s squandered potential the last few years and I guess now I have to put up or shut up! Easterday Construction has long been a shareholder in PIDCO. We’ve believed in the mission and the work they have done for Plymouth and Marshall County has been impressive. I look forward to helping them recapture and advance their agenda for the betterment of the community.
There was a presentation from Dan Zuerner of Garmong Construction regarding his thoughts on economic development and the new shell building that is being built on PIDCO property. This project is a combined effort with PIDCO, MCEDC, City of Plymouth and the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission. This will give us a flexible state of the art building to offer on the market. The presentation was interesting and hopefully a wake-up call to the PIDCO members and city officials that were there. He chastised the City for high fees and difficult requirements that have added costs and slowed the project. If this is a difficulty for a company we’re partnering with, just imagine the view from a new business looking to expand here…
My friend Eric Freeman used to say that when he stepped down as Culver Chamber President, he would take on Burr Oak. The title of this post was to be his motto for Burr Oak’s renaissance. He thought “If it ain’t Burr Oak, don’t fix it!” would catch on. Unfortunately for Burr Oak, Eric changed jobs and moved to Indy before he could lead them to greatness.
I drive through Burr Oak daily without giving it much thought unless I’m stopped by a train. The recent hub-bub about new NIPSCO line routes and the expansion of the NIPSCO substation adjacent to Burr Oak have had me thinking about it more lately. This is partially due to the county-wide discussions promoted by MCEDC (Marshall County Economic Development Corporation) and how to make our communities more conducive to development. MCEDC is constantly working on a dialogue with Marshall County communities about how to make themselves more conducive to positive development and economic growth. There is a lengthy checklist of what industry looks for, but if you apply some of the big ones to Burr Oak, there is potential.
Rail Access – Check! Burr Oak not only has rail access, but has an existing rail side track – something difficult to obtain and expensive to build these days. Plus getting a new one approved that crosses an existing state highway would be nearly impossible in today’s regulatory environment. Norfolk Southern runs as many as 35 trains a day through Burr Oak on this track.
Electric Service Capacity – Check! Just hit the above NIPSCO link to see the amount of power that will be passing through the new substation. (All routes lead through Burr Oak. There is a map showing the routes considered here.)
Available Workforce – Check! Marshall County as a whole draws much of its workforce from adjacent Starke and Pulaski counties. Burr Oak’s location towards the southwest corner of Marshall County and its close proximity to State Road 8 make access to the labor force convenient.
Good Schools – Check! Burr Oak sits between Culver and Plymouth. Plymouth is becoming known throughout the state as one of the better and most progressive public school systems in the State of Indiana. Culver is home to one of the preeminent internationally known private schools in the nation.
Quality of Life – Check! As MCEDC often promotes, Marshall County in general is a nice place to live. Burr Oak is close to Culver for recreation, restaurants, golf courses, etc. Rural living around Burr Oak is available and economical. Lake shore residences are available in nearby Culver and the Chain of Lakes area including the Lake Latonka development just minutes away.
Highway Access – Semi-Check… Burr Oak suffers from the same perceived negative as the rest of Marshall County – No Interstate access. But look at what they do have… They are on a State highway, within a few miles of two other state highways and within 10 miles of two four-lane state highways. There are 12 million people within 100 miles! (Source)
From here, the list becomes spotty. There isn’t a water system or sewer system in Burr Oak. While not every industry needs these infrastructures for production, many require them for fire safety. Which brings up emergency services. They would need to be provided by Culver which still remains a mostly volunteer service. There isn’t high speed internet service. The recently approved expansion of the Metronet into Plymouth and Marshall County is positive for those area, but expansion into southern Marshall County is at least several years away. Burr Oak proper doesn’t have much to offer in the way of commerce, but it is ripe for something to happen.
So, what makes a community thrive or die? As I’ve listed here, Burr Oak has a lot of positives. In some cases positives that outweigh those in other Marshall County communities. Personally I think it is the drive of community leaders. Burr Oak needs an Eric Freeman with a vision for the community! Every community talks about wanting a strong economy, but few are doing something about it. Communities often rise and fall as community leaders appear and disappear. Many times these leaders are shooting stars. They come on to the scene out of nowhere and burn brightly. To continue the analogy, some of them disappear on the horizon as they are recognized and drawn to bigger challenges, while others fizzle out when their passion or support disappears. It is unfortunate that communities often don’t recognize these forces until they’ve lost them. (Source)
Plymouth had PIDCO (Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation) in the late 50’s and through the 60’s and 70’s. They aggressively pursued community involvement encouraging small investments from people in the community in order to gain broad acceptance of goals. They bought land, partnered with the city to get infrastructure in place and then pursued and captured new businesses for Plymouth. Unfortunately they have become less of a player and are no longer as aggressively pursuing these opportunities. They are suffering from some mission drift and divided attention. Their name still contains “Industrial” but their website has been renamed “Plymouth Alive” and talks about downtown commercial business pursuits.
Culver also once had an Industrial Promotion Committee as part of the Culver Jaycees. This group was responsible for bringing McGill Manufacturing Co., Inc. from Valparaiso to Culver with a new 60,000 sf facility. (The building is currently occupied by Elkay.) But from all indications, the group fizzled quickly after that first success and the Culver Jaycees as a parent group has been dissolved as well. (Source)
MCEDC is attempting to fill the voids left by these groups, but sometimes it is difficult when there is not engaged community leadership. The County Development for the Future meetings that MCEDC has sponsored quarterly is an attempt to foster new stars in each Marshall County community. The biggest success story so far is the Town of Argos and their purchase of 75 acres for future development. (Annexation Article) They are well on their way to making this a Shovel Ready Site registered with the IEDC (Indiana Economic Development Corporation). Following their example, Bourbon is in the process of annexing additional property for development. Who will be the next community to step up to the challenge?
Last Wednesday I attended the third MCEDC Economic Development For the Future Meeting at Swan Lake. Culver was represented at this meeting by Bill Githens, Dave Schoeff and Ginny Munroe. This meeting had a “report card” kind of feel. In the previous two meetings we talked about what MCEDC needed in order to help the communities and about a list of goals for each of the communities. At this meeting we listed all of those goals along with all of the associated action steps on poster boards and asked the communities to report on their progress. All of them were able to point to some of the good things they have done and areas where work was needed. A couple even added additional goals to their list.
Culver’s list was one of the longest, but that is partly due to me being an activist, as you can see from my comp plan map The Culver list is shown at the right and you can blow it up to see what is on it (feel free to step up and accomplish anything on there you would like to!)
This meeting was the first that Ginny had attended and it was interesting to hear her comments on how it energized her. Seeing how other community representatives were stepping up and taking ownership on projects was an important goal for MCEDC in these meetings. We hope to instill some civic pride and civic competition and we seem to be achieving some success.
We have already scheduled a follow up meeting for the fourth quarter of 2013 and hope to build on the successes we have seen so far. This program is already paying back with some exciting dividends.
“What’s Your Opinion?”
9:45 a.m. Friday, June 14th
Featuring guests:
Lorna Shively
Job Lead Specialist
Jay Bahr, MPA, Executive Director
Marshall County EDC
Marshall County Economic Development Corporation
Tune in to WTCA “The Chief” 1050 AM
“What’s Your Opinion?”
Spotlight on Industry in Marshall County
9:45 a.m. Friday, March 8th
Featuring guests:
Don Coblentz, Director of Operations
Bremen, Indiana
Derek Spier, AICP, Economic Development Specialist