Comeback kicks off

BY ANN ALLEN
Correspondent, The Sentinel

"It takes courage to step into the batter's spot, but don't be afraid to do it," Connie Neininger told nearly 70 area residents interested in Fulton County Comeback.

That's what organizers named their state-sponsored Hometown Competitiveness participation.

Neininger, the economic development director in White County, spoke Tuesday at the Community Resource Center. She described how her county instituted the program by creating sports teams involving each of the program's four pillars - entrepreneurship, youth attraction, wealth capture and leadership.

"We don't compete with each other," she said. "Each team has its own coach and team huddles. After we complete our assignments, we have seventh inning stretches. In short, we make it fun."

While White County has seen no noticeable gains in any of the four pillar areas, Neininger is undaunted. "We've learned a lot in this long-term process," she said. "For one thing, when we did a youth assessment in the schools, we found only one student planned to stay in Monticello. We're working to change that and to stop negative thinking. We really support our community."

Shane Blair, director of Fulton Economic Development Corp., would like to replace this area's negative thinking with positive forward action and believes the Hometown Competitive initiative offers the necessary solution.

"We were one of only five counties chosen for this program," Blair said. There's no grant money associated with the program but plenty of help from eight sponsoring agencies.

Those are the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs; Ball State University's Building Better Communities; Indiana Grantmakers Alliance; Indiana Rural Development Council; Purdue University's Center for Regional Development/Extension Service; University of Southern Indiana Extended Services; and U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Office.

Ideas suggested by participants included working on mentorship programs, finding a replacement for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, establishing a Junior Chamber of Commerce, learning what the community wants from students, inspiring entrepreneurs by providing step-by-step procedures they need to follow to enter the business community - information that could be available at the library or town hall.

Others suggested a need for the public to shop locally. Terri Johnson, Northern Indiana Community Foundation director, reminded those concerned about wealth capture that a mechanism for that is already in place.

Each of the four pillar groups will begin meeting next week.

Their leaders are Angie Miller, youth; Alison Heyde and Mark Kepler, leadership; Brian Johnson, wealth capture; and Shane Blair, entrepreneurship.

Also serving on the steering committee are Mark Rodriguez, Brian Johnson and Matt Sutton.