The Daviess County Board of Commissioners approved another agreement with the WestGate@Crane Authority on Monday. The latest measure calls for the county Highway Department to help develop two new roads in the tech park.
The agreement calls for the authority to provide up to $125,000 in materials and the county provide the equipment and labor to extend both Captain Nelson Drive and Innovation Drive.
The additions are the first steps toward building a direct route between the WestGate@Crane Academy and the Battery Innovation Center, currently under construction.
“Right now we’re working on about a half mile of road,” said county Highway Superintendent Phil Cornelius. “We are going to build what we can with the time that we have this year.”
“I have been up there and seen some of the work they are doing,” said Commissioner Mike Taylor. “It’s a great thing.”
The road project is just part of a continuing push in the park next to the Crane Naval base to put infrastructure in place that will draw defense contractors and jobs there. Roads are only part of the equation. Water and sewer services are also important. Greene County has set up a sewer district that serves the tech park, nearby Scotland and some Daviess County residents in the area.
Representatives from the sewer district updated the commissioners on the rate structure and discussed some adjustments that may have to be made in the future. “We based the rates on what it costs to run the system,” said Hal Harp with the Greene County Sewer District. “The charges are based on the square footage each customer has.”
While the rates reflect what Greene County has invested in the treatment plant, lift stations and lines, it does not include lines put in place by Daviess County when the project began. “The rates do not include any reimbursement for the $150,000 that Daviess County spent on the line along (CR 1400N),” said Sewer District Attorney Marilyn Hartman. “If we do that then we will have to completely re-figure the rates.”
When Daviess County built the sewer and water lines it was with the understanding that eventually the money would be re-paid. “We have no intent to run a utility,” said Commissioner Tony Wichman.
“I don’t think the water and sewer lines are something the county will want to maintain in the future,” added County Surveyor Dennis Helms.
The expenditures for roads, sewer and water lines, though, have turned into an investment that had the dividend of bringing jobs to the county. More than 1,250 jobs are now tied directly to operations in the tech park. “It’s all about infrastructure and it all translates back to attracting jobs,” said Wichman. “It’s good for us.”
The entire development of WestGate also has an impact on Crane, the third largest employer in southwestern Indiana. “We feel the more connected we can make these defense contractors to Crane the more viable the base will be to the defense department in the future,” explained Wichman.
The county anticipates that the money spent on the projects will get re-paid and the plan is to pour it back into more development. “I look for an adjustment or reimbursement at some point,” said Wichman. “When we get it we will re-invest it later into another project.”
That project could be more roads, utility lines or even a building that might become the location for another contractor. “Business is like baseball,” said Wichman. “If you build it, they will come.”