Whitley County EDC

Whitley County is such an amazing place to live. I have to admit that I never quite realized that prior to working in downtown Columbia City. For years I’ve lived here, but always worked in Fort Wayne and I’ve taken most everything here for granted. For the last year I’ve worked in Columbia City and have been given the opportunity to learn about the communities within the county and all that they have to offer.

A number of recent events highlight the important investments being made in Whitley County to prepare our community for future economic development, including the opening of Rail Connect Business Park, the opening of the new Parkview Whitley Hospital, and the launch of the Blue River Trail bridge project. In addition, the Business & Industry Open House tomorrow at Eagle Tech Academy will showcase new and growing businesses locating in our community.

Return trip to China builds business connections for Northeast Indiana. For the third consecutive year, John Sampson, president and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership (NEIRP) will join the state-led trade mission to Asia.

Guest blogger Lukas Espich

I started my research on the Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs) because of an assignment that the Executive Director, Alan Tio, lit my interest on. Considering the background of Alan’s work, he knew a lot more than I (a measly intern!) about these FTZs.  Although his expertise is thorough, he put me on the task of learning the system so that I could create a section of our website to educate our community about the idea of FTZs and the benefits that can come from using them.  I began by researching what exactly a Foreign-Trade Zone is.

Guest blogger Kelley Lefever

Across the state the increase in solar, wind, biomass and alternative fuel initiatives gives testimony to the concept that Indiana is moving forward to a more green economy and increased job growth. In it’s 4th year, WIndiana 2011 and the Indiana Renewable Energy Conference set the tone for a promising future for Hoosiers. Here are some of the highlights as they relate to economic development:

The pace of business development activity at the EDC has slowed during recent months, perhaps partly due to national economic conditions, or just as much due to our clients taking a respite after a busy spring season. However, our economic development team is not waiting by the phone for things to pick up again. Quite to the contrary, we are using the time to focus on projects that will improve our community's competitiveness for businesses and entrepreneurs.

Monthly letter to the editor from the Whitley County Commissioners - June, 2011

The Commissioners have been taking advantage of the great weather and visiting 15 of our County Businesses with our Economic Development Director Alan Tio.

Guest Blogger - Kelley Lefever, Marketing Project Manager

Many of you may have heard that Columbia City will have a New Tech High School opening this fall. And like many of you, I was exposed to the early questions about the project, but I recently attended a breakfast hosted by Eagle Tech Academy that not only shaped my opinion on the school, it sparked the thought; how can welcoming the presence of a new high school teach us about presenting our community in a positive light?

Indiana was ranked as the best place to do business in the Midwest and the sixth best nationwide in a survey of more than 500 chief executives by Chief Executive magazine.