Montgomery County leaders have set a vision of “100 Jobs, 100 Homes” to spur more economic development in the community.
Elected officials joined together this week to begin the conversation in the first of what they hope will be a series of joint meetings of the Board of Commissioners, County Council, Redevelopment Commission and Regional Sewer District.
“If this does nothing but stay 30,000 foot today to talk about why we’re doing what we’re doing, I’ll be a happy guy,” said Board of Commissioners president John Frey, who led the meeting.
Despite the pandemic, economic development leads have remained strong and the city is in significant talks with local companies looking to expand operations.
But officials discussed the ongoing challenges for companies eying a move to Montgomery County, such as the lack of suitable existing buildings.
“We say that in public [and] people are like, oh, we got the old this building and that building. Those don’t meet the specs that we’re looking for,” said Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton, who spoke at the meeting. “We have no inventory of existing buildings in this community.”
Barton said officials could discuss new ways of creating spec buildings that weren’t available several years ago. With the commerce park all but full, the city plans to hire a firm to determine how to develop land south of Crawfordsville.
Talks are continuing with housing developers seriously interested in building projects. The city and the county are investing in programs to help entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Meetings of the Economic Development Authority, which were suspended due to the pandemic, are set to resume in April.
But the county’s expansion efforts are hurting without a full-time economic development director, said Ron Dickerson, chair of the Redevelopment Commission.
Commissioners are developing an action plan and discussing how to finance improvements.
