Marshall County Vision meeting in Culver
Last week MCEDC had a Marshall County Vision Meeting in Culver with a select group of Culver representatives. Those representatives helped refine the message and selected a date for a Town-wide meeting. MCEDC hopes those representatives will also help get the word out to assure a good turn out. The message we’re sharing is a call to action. The more people that hear this directly from the source, the more clearly the message will be recommunicated. Invite you friends and neighbors. This is important to us all.
Thank you to Rich West and the Culver Cove for hosting!
MCEDC Appointment
Kevin L. Berger was reappointed as Culver’s representative to the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) Board of Directors. Berger has represented Culver since the corporation’s inception in 2007. Berger commented, “I am pleased that the Town Council continues to have confidence in my representation. I attend nearly every Town Council, Plan Commission and Redevelopment Commission meeting, to stay aware of what is going on in Culver. Through my involvement, MCEDC has been instrumental in updating Culver’s Tax Abatement program, bringing industry to the table to pursue Culver initiatives, moving the Entry Level Housing Task Force forward and most recently helping to put Culver initiatives into the Northern Indiana Regional Cities proposal and then following through to help assure our region was selected as a Regional Cities recipient.”
State of the Union – Two Empty Seats
I wrote about my distaste for the State of the Union address last year at this time in a post here. This year is shaping up to be no less the embarrassing spectacle. Listening to the Sunday morning news shows yesterday, I heard that President Obama is planning to leave two seats empty, to which I say, “Good Start!” Maybe if they were all empty this sham would be recognized for what it is and it would be the last one we had to endure.
The quote to the right is from an article by Kevin D. Williamson, written for the National Review, titled Great Caesar’s Ghost. If you’re interested in reading it, I’ve linked it here. It’s a couple of years old, but still worthwhile.
Regional Cities Initiative on WNIT’s Economic Outlook
From the right: Regina Emberton – President and CEO of The Michiana Partnership, Jeff Rea – President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County, Diana Lawson – Executive Director of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Jerry Chavez – President & CEO of the Marshall County Economic Development Corp.
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.
Kathy Pearson
The Easterday Construction family lost another member last week. Kathy Pearson succumbed to her cancer after a three year, protracted battle. She kept her spirits up until the end. She came to the visitation for my grandfather on December 7th, only a couple of weeks ago, and promised we would get together for lunch again soon. Sadly that didn’t happen.
Kathy Pearson Obituary
Kathy was a fixture at Easterday Construction Co., Inc. for 38 years. KP to those of us in the office. When she retired at the end of 2014, she left a void that was impossible to fill. I gave some of her history with the company here in a previous post. That barely scratched the surface of the contributions she made.
History is a huge part of what was lost with her passing. Kathy remembered past projects nearly as well as I did in my tenure, but she also could tell me the history of projects before my time. She remembered past employees, subcontractors and suppliers, filling in gaps in things I had forgotten or never knew. She remembered phone numbers almost unerringly and served as a virtual rolodex when I would ask for a number or name that wouldn’t come to me. Long before it was “Ask Google” it was “Ask Kathy”.
