Plymouth

Grace Baptist Church Anniversary

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Grace Baptist Church in Plymouth will be celebrating their 50 year anniversary this summer.  They have a dedication marker in the corner of their front entrance commemorating the 1961 establishment of the Church.  There has been some debate regarding whether there is a time capsule behind this stone.  Some of the Church Elders believing that there is a time capsule there and would like to open it as part of the anniversary celebration.

Because of the various projects we’ve completed for the Church, Pastor Elliott asked if we knew if there was a time capsule there or if there was a way of finding out without damaging the marker.  I looked at the marker and the wall and was a little skeptical.  The marker is carved limestone.  From all indications the wall is block with the limestone exterior as a veneer.  The thickness doesn’t really lend itself to allow for a cavity since the total wall thickness is not much more than 12″.  That would allow for 8″ block with 4″ limestone veneer.  If the marker stone is 2″ thick, there might be a 2″ cavity behind it.  If they had also switched to 4″ block in this area, they could have possibly created a 6″ cavity.

I discussed removing the marker with Pastor Elliott.  Even if the marker is only 2″ thick, it would be difficult to cut the mortar surrounding it.  We would not be able to cut all the way to the corners to the full depth with a circular blade without damaging the surrounding stone.  If we stopped short of cutting full depth at the corners to protect the surrounding stone, we would be forced to chip out the remaining mortar taking the chance of damaging the marker.  This on the chance that there is a time capsule…

Matt Peregrine

I made an alternate suggestion that we drill a hole in the block behind the marker and use a camera to check for a cavity.  Matt Peregrine of Peregrine Heating and Cooling has a camera and volunteered to donate part of his Saturday to help.  Matt’s son Steven just completed 5th grade at Grace Baptist School and came along to check out the exploration.  We met this past Saturday, May 28th, to see what we could find.

We used a hammer drill and drilled three holes in the wall.  The first hole was drilled directly behind the marker.  This hole found no cavity.  Not even a block core void.  We went as far as we dared for fear of damaging the marker and were in approximately 8″ when we stopped.  The second hole was drilled above the marker with the idea that we could look down into any cavity.  We had difficulty bending the camera to see down in the gap between the block and stone, so we used that same hole as a starting point and drilled at a 45 degree angle down towards the marker.  In second and third holes we were able to see the gap between the stones, but found no void.   While this didn’t conclusively eliminate the possibility, we felt we had pressed our luck far enough and the Church Elders needed to hear what we found and decide if more destruction was warranted.  I spoke to Pastor Elliott this week and he is going to report our findings to the Church Board.  At this time they plan no more exploration.

I want to thank Matt Peregrine for generously donating his time.  He told me he felt like Geraldo Rivera when he was looking for Al Capone’s vault since the whole thing had an anticlimactic ending.  Apologies to Steven.  I guess he didn’t get to be the first to see the time capsule, but he did get to see his father giving generously of his time and equipment.  Hopefully that will inspire him in the future.

Marshall County Economic Development partners with Small Business Develoment Center

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Marshall County Economic Development is pleased to announce that in partnership with the North Central Indiana Small Business Development Center, free, confidential, one-on-one business assistance will be available at our Plymouth office on Miller Drive once a month beginning Wednesday, March 23rd.

Individual appointments to meet with Alan Steele, ISBDC Business Advisor, will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.  This opportunity is open to entrepreneurs considering starting a business and those new to business ownership.  But it is important to note the wealth of information and support services that SBDC can provide to ANYONE making critical decisions about how to improve their small business – particularly useful for existing strong Marshall County businesses facing new challenges brought by the digital-global-information age! 

See the range of services provided below and at the SBDC website at http://www.southbendbcg.com/ for more information on how SBDC can help you succeed in taking your business to the next level.

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House Democrats walking out

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I was amused when I saw that the Wisconsin State Senate Democrats were hiding in Illinois.  Their new moniker as the FLEE Party was funny.  Now I am ashamed to see that our Indiana State Representatives, including our local District 17 Representative, Nancy Dembowski, are doing the same.  If you’re as embarrassed by her method of representing us as I am, please take the time to send her a note here:  h17@in.gov

This is poor government, poor sportsmanship and just plain poor leadership.  I received an email from the Indianapolis TEA Party that has a lot of interesting links if you want to follow up with them.  You can see the email here.  They are not only taking on the missing Democrats, but also the Governor and the Republican led Senate, asking for better leadership from our representative government.  I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.

There is a billboard at the corner of S.R. 8 & S.R. 17 that I pass every day on the way to work.  It has Nancy Dembowski’s smiling face telling me she’s my Representative.  If that’s the case, why is she hiding in Illinois?

PIDCO 2011 Annual Meeting

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Last Week the Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation (PIDCO) held their annual meeting, the highlight of which was the presentation by Stu Summers on their Destination Downtown initiative to invigorate Plymouth’s Core.  (They also discussed how horrible the existing PIDCO website is.  Ugh!)
 
 The main thing I took from the presentation was PIDCO’s desire to learn from other communities and capitalize on their successes. They spent time in Valporaiso and developed a non-competitive relationship where the two communities can share ideas and successes going forward. I hope they continue this spirit of cooperation and foster relationships with other nearby communities such as Warsaw and Rochester. This is similar to the initiatives taken by the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) in their efforts to form relationships with surrounding counties. “A rising tide lifts all boats” is an aphorism that can be applied to the economic successes of our towns, cities, counties and regions.
 
They also took the opportunity to honor Brent Martin who has often been the main impetus in bringing their projects to fruition. It is unclear who is in line to step up to this challenge on the new PIDCO board, but it is clear that they will have big shoes to fill.

Congratulations to Andrea Cook and The Midas Center

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Picture from Midas Center Reception
Attendees at The Midas Center Reception (Left to Right: Bob Wagner, Brent Martin, Kevin Berger and Marcy EckoffWagner

Congratulations to Andrea Cook and The Midas Center  on their move to their new location at 200 North Michigan Street in Plymouth.  I attended their Reception on December 17th and it was interesting to see their progress and the various people, some of them old friends, that are involved and were there to help them.

I initially connected to Andrea through her position on the Culver Redevelopment Commission.  She has become quite active in the Culver and Plymouth Communities through her business at The Midas Center as well as her two community promotion sites, iHEARTplymouth and iHEARTculver.  I have consulted with Andrea and her husband Phil on the status of the historic building they have purchased and we are working with them on a restoration project at the site.