I saw these ads while in Wabash working on the Charley Creek Inn project. I thought they would be something for Culver to consider and suggested them at the Culver Redevelopment Commission Meeting on Monday. We’ll see if they found them as intriguing as I did. I was told that they were sponsored by Wabash Marketplace.
Because of my position on the Marshall County Community Foundation (MCCF) Grants Committee, I was fortunate enough to see the beginnings of the Robotics Club at Plymouth High School. I knew Principal Jim Condon as a fellow Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) Board Member. He introduced me to Josh Kuhn and Kennedy Schneider, two Plymouth High School students who, without the knowledge of the school, entered and won the State Vex Robotics Competition. (I found this article discussing the original team in the South Bend Tribune. I’ve embedded a link to them winning the State Championship below.) The School then helped them move on to the World competition in California. The school then applied for a grant from MCCF to start a formal robotics club the following year. I vetted the school’s grant application for a robotics program and was pleased to champion it with the MCCF Grants Committee. MCCF awarded them a significant grant to begin the program.
Coming full circle, Principal Condon told me last Friday that three years after that start-up, Plymouth High School’s Robotics Club would be hosting a northern Indiana competition on Saturday and would be fielding six teams. The event ran from 9 until 4. Due to other commitments I could only go for the afternoon. Becky and I got there about 1:30 and as it turned out, that was about right as we were in time for the to see the team selection process and the beginning of the elimination rounds.
Principal Condon was kind enough to take a few minutes to sit with us and update me on the status of the program as well as tell us a little about what we were seeing. The teams were ranked and then through a school yard pick, divided up into teams of three. The teams then competed head to head for two out of three wins in competition matches to advance to the finals.
I don’t think I could do justice to a description of the competition here. Suffice it to say it was a combination of driving skill, defense, ball collection and ball shooting skill as they collected balls around the arena and attempted to get them into the goal net. The robots shot the balls using impellers, catapults and paddles. The students were given specifications and a parts list they could use last summer and then they spent months developing CAD models of their robots. They are required to provide a detailed manual describing the design process and the construction process which is part of the judging process. At competitions they are judged on not only their competence in the arena, but on style and presentation.
I’m probably unjustified in being proud of the very small part I played in helping with this. But seeing the enthusiasm of the kids and the obvious pride they have in their efforts was heartwarming. I’ll have no problem going back to MCCF and telling them that the grant money invested in the program was well spent.
I was very pleased with the turn out Saturday for MCEDC’s presentation on Marshall County Vision. There was good participation and good support. When the discussion turned to Regional Cities, I didn’t see much enthusiasm. That concerns me. Whenever I speak to anyone about Culver’s place in Regional Cities I get one of two responses (Or sometimes a combination of both.):
First off, we should acknowledge how fortunate we are. Out of seven regions, we were selected as one of the top three. Then it was decided to award to the top three in lieu of just the top two as originally planned. The scuttlebutt is that we were number three and And then think about Kosciusko County. They are probably kicking themselves right now. They were invited to be part of our region, but instead decided they would be better served being part of the Fort Wayne Region. Now instead of being one of four Counties dividing up $42 million they are one of thirteen!
But Marshall County and the Marshall County communities needs to get off our collective butts and start figuring out how we can benefit from this. We are starting out at a disadvantage. The other two Counties in our region, St. Joseph and Elkhart, have dedicated staff that are working on this. The cities of South Bend, Mishawaka and Elkhart have City Engineers that they can dedicate to this. Marshall County doesn’t have the equivalent staff put on this. We’re going to have to overcome that in order to move things forward if we don’t want negative attitude #2 above to come to fruition.
As far as the lack of information goes, everyone in the three winning regions is in the same boat. Are they just sitting and waiting? The Fort Wayne region has CEDIT. (Remember how we’re one of the few counties in northern Indiana that doesn’t have CEDIT?) They are down at the State House lobbying for the ability to raise their CEDIT in order to have the extra funds needed to fully fund their matching $42 million. It doesn’t sound like they’re sitting on the sidelines waiting for more information…
My thought process is that “planning” costs very little. The County needs to convene a meeting with the communities and work through prioritizing their projects. Rather than working on these tasks individually, we can maybe pool resources and make the most of what we have. Additional “shell buildings” are included for several communities. How about we sit down and look at Plymouth’s shell building as a model. Do we want to duplicate that? Probably not. So what do we want to change? We can talk to land owners and try and tie down sites. We can get contractor estimates. None of that costs money, but any of that time spent now would move things ahead. Ditto for the Entrepreneurial Hubs. We could be determining locations. Talking to other communities that have them and figuring out the good and bad. Getting contractor estimates. This thinking could apply to all of the projects on the original submittal.
Culver is on the list for both of the above items plus a few more. Jerry Chavez and MCEDC thinks Culver may have the best opportunities to advance these things. Opportunity is knocking. Or as Jerry is fond of saying, “The economic development train is passing right by us. It’s our obligation to flag down that train. It’s not going to stop here of it’s own volition.”
MCEDC‘s President, Jerry Chavez, was on Economic Outlook last month discussion the Regional Cities Initiative and Marshall County’s role in it. As previously discussed here, Marshall County, St. Joseph County and Elkhart County form one of three regions in Indiana that were awarded $42 Million in State grant money. Check out the video link here.