JEFFERSONVILLE — No one disputes the impressive potential of the River Ridge Commerce Center. Boasting thousands of acres of developable land and easy access to air, rail, road and river, the former U.S. Army Ammunition Plant has all of the tools to make Jeffersonville the state’s biggest boomtown.
But that’s not the only thing that impressed Peggy Welch when she attended a presentation about Southern Indiana’s economic future Thursday. Welch, the intergovernmental affairs director for Lt. Gov. Sue Ellsperman’s office, left confident that Clark County officials were working together to secure the area’s future.
“What was impressive at the presentation and as we were driving around was the communication that is happening between each entity, and lots of transparency — not just within all of the groups that are working on their vision, but they’re communicating with the community,” Welch said. “As the community and the citizens understand what the goal is, what the vision is, how they’re going to be involved, how their voices are going to be heard, there’s going to be better cooperation.”
The presentation, which included a tour of River Ridge, the Ohio River Bridges Project east-end crossing work site and the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville, was organized by Clark County Commissioner Rick Stephenson, who said he felt it is important to keep the state executive in the know on major economic development projects in the area.
“It shows that we are a cohesive group down here, and it’s a regional project,” Stephenson said. “The economic development in Clark County is not one entity’s responsibility — we’re not going to get the progress we need unless we do so as a cohesive unit in this region.”
Stephenson was part of a team of presenters that included River Ridge Executive Director Jerry Acy, South Central Regional Airport Authority President Tom Galligan, Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville Director Scott Stewart and engineers from several companies involved in local infrastructure projects.
And infrastructure was at the heart of the county officials’ message. After Acy gave a brief rundown of River Ridge’s successes in attracting new tenants, the focus shifted to the new heavy-haul transportation corridor that will connect the port to River Ridge and the new Interstate 265 interchange. The corridor, which will include rail from River Ridge to the port, is scheduled to be complete by the early part of 2017, Acy said.
The heavy haul corridor and the Ohio River Bridges Project will soon be realities, but another road project is still in the early phases of development.
After Galligan presented the benefits of the runway expansion project at the Clark County Regional Airport, Welch and Nick Barbknecht, the intergovernmental affairs director for the Indiana Department of Transportation, learned about the county’s plans to construct a road connecting the airport to River Ridge. The new road would open up to 8,000 acres for residential and commercial development, said Stephenson, who argued that getting the project moving was imperative to the economic success of the area.
“We’ve wasted too much time already,” Stephenson said. “We’re two to three years behind the curve, and Kentucky’s not going to wait for us.”
Barbknecht said that INDOT may not be able to unilaterally fund such a road, and noted that the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency — the area’s metropolitan planning organization, or MPO — may be the best route to securing federal funds.
“Whether the MPO finds it to be the best source of funding or not, it’s up to them together to figure out how to do it and how to deliver it,” Barbknecht said. “INDOT funds the MPOs, and the MPOs are the planners and the local folks who are the best source of knowledge on these projects.”
The county has already committed $500,000 in redevelopment funds for environmental and surveying work along the proposed path of the new road. Welch said that showed the county’s commitment to the project.
“I think it went well,” Stephenson said. “Being able to actually visualize and see the parties together, and see the properties we’re talking about, and the progress and construction, I think it was very well received. I think it will be a positive message being sent to the lieutenant governor when [Welch] goes back [to Indianapolis].”
“There’s a great capacity for this area to be what they want it to be,” Welch said, “which is the economic hub of the state of Indiana.”