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Clary grateful for state of local economic development
Record-setting attendance at the Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development Center annual meeting is reason enough for Director Kristin Clary to be grateful, correct?
Well, on Friday Clary regaled a crowd of 95 community and regional leaders with a long list of reasons she was practicing gratitude, painting a positive picture of the state of economic development in the community.
Standing in front of the fireplace in the Great Room of the Prindle Institute for Ethics, Clary listed a series of beautiful sentiments to compliment her beautiful surroundings.
“Practicing gratitude is how I’m going to spend my day today,” Clary said. “I’m grateful for all of you here today. This year we cast our net a little bit wider than usual, inviting new associates from the economic development world. So if you see a new face here today, please reach out and make a new friend.”
Among reasons Clary, and by extension her nearly 100 guests, was grateful:
• A meal from Bon Appetit and a venue like the Prindle Institute.
• The people who have helped her in her nearly eight years as director, namely her predecessor, current Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory, about to complete his two terms in office.
“(Mayor Dory) became my mentor, then my predecessor, and now is someone with whom I have worked closely over the last eight years,” Clary said. “His time as mayor is coming to an end, but not time where his valuable knowledge will be sought after, and his advice will continue to be appreciated.”
• Deputy Tami Van Rensselaer, “who gets to do this fun work with me every day and keeps me on track when I start coming off the rails.”
• Her executive team of President Michael Clampitt, Vice President Carrie Thompson, Secretary/Treasurer Laura Elsbrock, Mayor Dory and Director Emeritus Bob Jedele.
Along with these, the entire 23-member board of directors.
• Finally, “those opportunities presented to us where we can help both large employers and small businesses take advantage of opportunities provided by local, regional and state funding.”
With that, Clary spoke of some of these opportunities, and through them some programs on which the Development Center spends its time and resources.
She noted that the city and county have used tax abatement as a tool to encourage capital investment in the community. While it has been used for industries for years, in the past year, two residential projects have received abatement.
“And why is this, you may ask, that we would support abatement for residential projects?” Clary said. “Because housing is our number one issue to address when trying to meet the needs of our employers. We need to get more people living in Putnam County.”
With this, she also noted that the county is undergoing as housing study and that the city and DePauw have partnered on a grant from the Eli Lilly Foundation to create a plan for housing development.
The housing study is being funded by READI (Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative) dollars, as well as $1 million for increasing the wastewater capacity at Heritage Lake, $1.5 million to improve Bennington Way in Cloverdale and $100,000 to offset to cost of a Roachdale water project.
Finally, Clary spoke of the new model of economic development, which involves making communities better places to live.
“New economic development says create the quality of place that people want to be, and they will come and help fill jobs that already existed,” Clary said. “Quality of place includes good job opportunities, adequate affordable worker housing, and other things that make Greencastle and Putnam County a place where people want to live, learn and work.”
Quality of place? Yet another reason for gratitude.
The 2024 board of directors for the Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center includes the executive committee of President Michael Clampitt, Vice President Carrie Thompson, Secretary-Treasurer Laura Elsbrock, Bill Dory and Director Emeritus Bob Jedele, as well as Beau Baird, Rick Burger, Melissa Ensor, Jeff Gibboney, Phil Gick, Jared Grable, Chase Haltom, Karen Heavin, Treg Hopkins, Jennifer Isbell-Scott, Stacie Langdon, Greg Linton, Morgan Mullinex, Mike Smith, Mike Teso and Rick Woodall.
New members in 2024 are Alison Hendrich of Crown Equipment and Andrea Young of DePauw University. They replace Steven Fouty and Travis Linneweber.