Three counties in rural IN are jointly working together on the development of a 1,000-acre technology research and development park. The effort is being assisted by the state to take advantage of the $3 billion Crane military technical center, located in the most sparsely populated of the three. Last week the State of Indiana pledged an initial $1 million to help get this project off the drawing boards and into operation by late 2006. Already, two high tech companies with ties to Crane have announced plans to locate in the park.
Daviess (population 30,245); Martin (10,467); and Greene (33,500) counties are typical rural counties. The largest town in this region is just over 10,000 in population, with all of the rest less than 5,000 in size. Too often the phenomenon of “Friday Night Lights”, blocks joint projects like this in towns and counties. I’ve written extensively about it, defining it as because our High School teams play each other on Friday nights, we can’t possibly work together on Monday mornings.
It is wonderful to see communities working together cooperatively in creating new jobs and opportunities for their citizens. I’m glad that they got over Friday Night Lights.
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