Economic development leaders in five local counties will be reviewing information from a Thursday night meeting in Connersville and Tuesday meeting in Richmond as they plan for the launching the Eastern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.
The new commission will consist of Fayette, Union, Wayne, Rush and Randolph counties and replace the defunct Eastern Indiana Development District as the region goes after economic development projects. A regional planning group is required to receive federal Economic Development Administration and USDA Rural Development grants.
The Purdue Center for Regional Development is leading the Stronger Economies Together effort, with Michael Wilcox moderating the Connersville session.
Seventy attended the Thursday session at the John Miller Community Center and discussed the strengths and challenges in the region and how those apply to data collected about the region. Most participants came from Fayette — including all three Connersville mayoral candidates — and Rush counties with a few from Wayne County.
The two meetings will provide vital information which will in turn help Purdue write the Compressive Economic Development Strategy plan with more public forums to follow in the upcoming months. The CEDS plan or strategy is one of the necessary elements needed to gain approval for EIRPC, said Dan Parker, Economic Development Group director.
Participants worked at tables of five or six for one round, then changed tables for future rounds so participants were constantly working with different participants.
After listing all the strength of the region, the participants voted for the top items. The top five strengths chosen were in order available educational opportunities in the area, reasonable cost of living, location to existing physical manufacturing facilities, water resources and transportation.
The top four challenges in the area in order were fear of change and negativity, drugs, generational poverty and lack of quality of life jobs with a living wage.
The participants then looked at data on human capital, demography, labor force and industry and occumpation of the regional from 2000 and the most recent data, either 2013 or 2014, and applied that to strength and challenges.
The area had a drop in population from 2000-2014 and is projected to continue to have a decline through 2020 while the state will have a 4 percent increase. The area has an older population compared to the state. Poverty increased and real median income declined. The area also lags the state in educational attainment and for patents issued.
As those at the tables looked for some positives in the data, one that showed up from seven tables was the region had a higher percentage of high school graduates than the state average. However, the higher high school graduation percent is a result of lower college attendance and graduation.
The region showed 42 percent with high school graduates as the highest level of education attainment while the state showed 35 percent. The region had 41 percent with some college, an associates degree, bachelor's degree or graduate degree but the state had 52 percent with some college or more. The region had 9 percent with a bachelor's degree while 15 percent in the state have a bachelor's degree.
Strengths from the data that could result in economic improvement are the lower cost of living which could attract business, available housing, educational opportunities and an available workforce.
The group also noted the new EIRPC should work with the four airports in the region, work with manufacturers of similar products to collaborate, create a regional technology center, bottle water, agritourism and develop a district database.
It's always nice to get people together talking about making the area better, said Mayor Leonard Urban.
"A lot of this data we went over, a lot of us have that memorized but it's nice to see what other people see and say from around the region," he said. "Sometimes we get stuck in rut. Yes, drugs was high but that is all across the nation, not just the region. Jobs again, but that is also across the Midwest. I think we have to dig deeper to find the cause of poverty, low income and try to get that fixed. It's more than jobs and drugs."
"It's outstanding to have this kind of turnout and the suggestions were great," Parker said. "When you get this many people together, making all these different suggestion and ideas, there is a lot of good that can come from it. It's been good for the EDG to sponsor and we'd do it again because there was wealth of information."
He too had reviewed the data previously but surprising were some of the things the public saw and emphasized, workforce issues, drugs, lack of opportunities, generational poverty. It was all good.
Both events had very good discussion with those attending being fully engaged, said Jeff Plasterer, Wayne County councilman, who had attended both events. There were a lot of positive comments that when the two groups' information are put together, there will be useful data that will drive the planning process.
"The two groups were very similar with a few areas of a little difference but most of the major points I think were very similar, which you would expect," he explained. "Both counties are very much alike although there are differences in size and population, but we in eastern Indiana are very similar."
Wilcox said one of the differences that came up in Connersville that did not come up in the Richmond meeting was the community or regional self-esteem issue.
"This isn't a difference between Richmond and Connersville, it's a difference in groups and we knew different things would bubble up," he said. "Along with that was the fear of change and that also did not come up before. That did not come out at the other forum and that's why we have more than one forum so we hear from as many different voices as possible so we can capture and grasp the breadth and depth of what the opportunities and challenges in the region."
He has visited the region several times in the past two and half years. The event gave a feel of a region with a wave of change coming.
"I don't know if it's the election or the country coming out of Great Recession, I think that Fayette County feels the progression happening for them as well and it's time for them to move forward, embrace change and enhance the quality of life," he said. "I'm always impressed coming off the interstate and coming down to Fayette County, how beautiful this county is and welcoming this country is but it doesn't always come up in the statistics.
"When you look at the statistics, you wind up seeing a different story and I'm hoping in the near future we're going to see what is actually seen here and the statistics begin to merge and that we'll be able to see the great story going on here. You can sense the winds of change going on here from an economic and social standpoint."
Wilcox also announced the formation of the Fayette County Women's Voices to lend their voices to developing the county. He will lead that conference on Jan. 13. That is something unique and never been done before. In addition, he will be back in the region for events with the planning on Dec. 3 and 9.
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