It is an honor to welcome you to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation's 2026 State of the
Bloomington Regional Economy. I'm Val Pena. I am the current chair of BEDC, and I'm grateful to be here
with so many leaders, partners, employers, educators, innovators, community builders, all of us who
help make and shape Bloomington-Ellisville-Monroe County.
Today's program is going to focus on where we are, where we are going, and how we're going to prepare
for the opportunities that lay ahead. The future economy is already taking shape and our region has
an important role to play in that. But to truly be a player, it requires data, strategy, collaboration,
readiness, and a shared commitment to move forward.
I offer a warm welcome to all our BEDC board members, regular members, sponsors, community partners,
and special guests. We also have some fantastic elected officials who have joined us, and I'd like to
give them each a shout out. Diane Powell from Senator Todd Young's office is here. Amanda Lowry, US
Congresswoman Erin Houchin's office is here. Carrie Thompson, Mayor of the City of Bloomington, here.
Mike Farmer from the Town Manager of Town of Ellitsville. William Ellis, Town of Ellitsville Council.
Liz Fiddle from the Monroe County Council. Trent Deckard from the Monroe County Council. Scott Rudd
from the Brown County Council. Welcome. We're glad you came over. And Noel Conyer, the Clerk Treasurer
for the Town of Ellitsville.
We'd also like to welcome the guests of our sponsors that have come. For many of you, this may be your
first time here, and we would love to see you come back. So thank you for coming. A big thank you also
goes out to our annual sponsors. Your investment is what helps the BEDC continue to work to strengthen
business growth, regional competitiveness, and long-term economic opportunity. Our annual sponsors include
Indiana University, Town of Ellitsville,
Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, First Financial Bank, German American Bank, IU Credit Union,
and Weddle Brothers Construction, Duke Energy, Smithville, People's State Bank, IU Health, and hopefully
more coming.
Today's meeting is also supported by the following SBRE sponsors. Please help me in thanking Bloomington
Health Foundation, Herald Fish, Inc., Hoosier Hills Credit Union, Markey's, Monroe County Airport, Mimosa
Tree Florist, Nature's Way, Patriot Engineering, Simtra Biopharma Solutions, and Work One. Thank you
to all of you.
I'd also like to give a huge shout out to my fellow BEDC officers. Paul Quick from Smithville Communications
is our first vice chair. He is in Utah today. Chris Hawk, one of our newest members from IU Credit Union.
He is our second vice chair. John Gernard from four of us. He is our treasurer. Carlos Lafferty, Monroe
County Airport, is our new secretary. And Tyscar Michael Wetterbrothers, construction, is our past chair.
So thank you to all of you.
For those of you who are new to the BEDC, our BEDC staff consists of Clark Greiner, who is the interim
CEO, Stacey Morata, who is the Communications and Membership Director, and Christy Wasson, who is our
Operations Manager. Small but mighty team. Today is not simply a report on where we are. It is a conversation
about where we're going
and what it takes to compete, and how Bloomington, Ellisville, and Monroe County and our regional partners
should prepare with the purpose of bringing those opportunities ahead. Because today we live in a world
where site selectors weigh risk as heavily as opportunity. And our job, not only at BDC, but as this
community, is to advance a proactive, integrated approach
that positions our region as an irresistible destination for business development. The core idea is
simple. Reduce uncertainty of every stage. At every stage, reduce it. From land readiness to workforce
fit, so that investors can move quickly with confidence. At BEDC, we're translating that into three
interconnected pillars.
site preparation, site development strategy, and community engagement. In site preparation, it's truly
turning potential into ready to go. Effective site selection begins long before a formal inquiry shows
up on a desk. BEDC is suggesting that we prioritize shovel-ready partials for coordinating with public
and private partners to accelerate the permitting
infrastructure readiness, and land assembly. This includes proactive due diligence such as environmental
studies, geotechnical work, floodplain analysis, and utility capacity assessments. BEDC is developing
an up-to-date inventory of certified sites and ready to build parcels so that we can shorten the decision
cycle for site selectors and reduce any perceived political, regulatory,
or logistical risk. Site development strategy is assigning assets with industry needs. BDC's site development
strategy is to translate raw land into ready-to-scale operating environments. By fostering public-private
partnerships, we can de-risk capital expenditure and align infrastructure investments with anticipated
demand. But the elements are critical
for us to be able to do this, and they include utility readiness. In today's economy, data and energy
resilience are as essential as the land cost. We shouldn't be talking about what we could do if we get
an inquiry. Instead, the conversation right now needs to be, how do we harmonize utility expansions
with anticipated industry clusters
and use that with developable sites so that we can shift the dialogue from what might be possible to,
hey, here's the plan. Transportation and logistics is another. We need to continue to optimize access
to the highways and to rail, and most importantly, the airport. Workforce alignment, this is aligning
training pipelines with the need of target industries.
We need to have more candid conversations with IU, Ivy Tech, and the employers to help design curriculum,
apprenticeships, and credentialing that shortens the path from job seekers to productive hires. And
incentives and timing, coordinating with local, state, and federal programs to deliver timely incentives,
tax credits, and land options that are competitive on a national scale.
Community engagement, building trust, expectations, and a shared vision, so investors assess not just
the site, but actually the community that they're gonna be in. BEDC sees the way to elevate Monroe County
as well as the region's competitiveness is by building industry-specific recruitment processes.
This includes clear communication on who on the team is doing what, along with regular updates on project
status, ensuring stakeholders understand their roles, and a singular message on how new investment translates
into jobs and long-term vitality. Stakeholder alignment, bridging our chambers, civic leaders, and economic
partners to articulate a shared economic vision
that recognizes and respects where we each specialize and gives us the ability to shift lead roles dependent
on the site selector's needs and interests. And social and environmental responsibility, incorporating
sustainable design, green infrastructure, and resilience planning so projects deliver not only short-term
gains, but lasting community value. I think what we're hoping for
is basically building a series of SWAT teams who are able to turn on a dime when we get an option or
an investor and know that we have the right people and the right players at the table for them. The
result is a Monroe County that reduced risks, accelerates deployment, and invites growth by integrating
meticulous site preparation, forward-looking development strategy, and inclusive community engagement.
We must all strive to make Monroe County a compelling low risk destination for site selectors. The outcome
is a continuously improving ecosystem where projects move from inquiry to occupancy with speed and certainty
and where our entire region can share from the benefits of growth. In essence, tomorrow needs today.
And everyone in this room needs to be part of that regional conversation about economic development,
competitiveness, and future opportunity. That is the work that is at us today so that we can talk about
and actually be completely ready for tomorrow. And with that, please help me welcome Clark Greiner,
our interim CEO for the BEDC.
Thank you, Val. Good afternoon, everyone. It is a great day to talk about economic development. I want
to begin by thanking our members, our public partners, our employers, our education and workforce leaders,
our utilities, our developers, our sponsors, and every person in this room who is invested in the future
of Bloomington, Ellisville, Monroe County, and the broader region. Economic development encompasses
all the way from startups to mature companies. Each require different support from the community, and as
As a show of support, I want to take a moment to talk about an early stage company that's with us today.
They are emerging from the community, our entrepreneurial spirit and ecosystem right now, and I want
to show a little support for them. The company is Resinex, and Resinex is developing an AI-powered acoustic
monitoring and predictive maintenance system for industrial fans, compressors, and motors in a real-world
environment.
Resonex was started by three entrepreneurs seeking their masters from the Luddy School of Informatics
and is seated at table 25. If I could get you guys to hold up the innovation sign right back there.
Welcome Dixitza, Paritam and Janavi. Janavi wasn't able to make it here today with us, but Resonex has
been a winning recipient of the
prestigious Chung Woo Innovation Challenge, among others, and they are at a critical juncture in their
business evolution and they need your help. So I'm gonna mention a little bit about that right now.
Their call to action, what they need is they need to meet leaders in the room who can help them capture
real world acoustic data sets in a live setting to build their AI model. I know we have that in here.
If you lead or have influence and operate in what I'm referring to as an acoustically diverse facility,
I urge you to introduce yourself to them and to the entire ResonX team at the conclusion of this event.
They'll be happy to answer any of your questions and set up a demonstration on how their technology
works. It's really innovative and really, really a neat thing to learn a lot more about. But they'll
be available next to the exit over here.
next to the dining area. And so I wanted to thank everyone in advance. But again, if you have impellers,
fans, motors, this is an acoustical thing that they're doing. It's really an awesome thing. So thank
you for coming, and we appreciate you. The people in this room matter, not just ResinX, but for all
of us. We understand that meaningful economic development is deliberate. It happens when a community
is intentional about its assets.
honest about its challenges, and disciplined when preparing for the next opportunity. That's the spirit
of today's meeting. From today's economy to tomorrow's opportunity, we're region preparing for what's
next. Together, we have what it takes to prepare our community and region to compete. The role of the
BEDC is focused and practical. We work in business retention, business attraction, site readiness, advocacy,
and regional partner alignment
In the simple terms, the BEDC helps business work. We support employers already here and ready to grow.
We respond to companies and site selectors evaluating our region and our community. We connect partners
so that when opportunity shows up, we're not starting from scratch. Economic development is about looking
ahead around those corners, understanding what future employers need, knowing our assets, being really
honest about our gaps,
and working with the right partners to close those gaps. Ultimately, we want to deliver winning solutions.
The recent National Aerospace opportunity tied to the airport gave this region a clearer view of the
future and what that looks like and what success looks like. This project reinforced the importance
of infrastructure, site readiness, workforce development, utility capacity, community coordination,
speed, certainty,
risk mitigation, and expertly telling our community story. We were not ultimately selected, but let's
not overlook what we've learned. I think that's really important. The lessons learned is Monroe County
can be part of a serious conversation about major investments, particularly for emerging technologies
in the aerospace, defense innovation, and future focused growth across many of our traded sectors. So
let's take a step forward.
Successful communities are not defined by perfection. We're defined by preparation. Economic success
is a team effort. Everyone in this room has something to contribute. And prepared communities win because
they understand their assets, recognize their gaps, communicate clearly, and invest accordingly.
Opportunities are at our doorstep. Business, government, education, workforce, utilities, why?
because communities, we win together. Collaboration is a must across all our partners in the economic
development ecosystem. A company evaluating the community wants to understand infrastructure, utility,
workforce, training capacities, housing, incentives, permitting, transportation, quality of life, site
control, environmental reviews, and long-term community support. Companies and their senior leadership teams
favor prepared communities. And I want our members and partners to hear this clearly. It's about readiness,
about action. It's about alignment, momentum, and the deliverables. And the deliverables aren't just
land. It's about the documents go about that. It's about our story, how we tell that, how we communicate,
and how we articulate that. Readiness creates competence. Companies invest where they find transparency,
responsiveness, alignment, and the ability
to solve problems when they arise. That's readiness. Site readiness is not simply about whether land
is available, it's about whether a company can trust the timeline, understand the utility path, evaluate
infrastructure requirements, and navigate permitting. Roadway access is important, development costs,
and have the ability to move forward with confidence. When companies compare communities, it is asking
direct questions. Some of the more basic ones
but are very important is, will the site work? Can the utilities serve it? Can the development timeline
be met? How difficult is the permitting path? What's our land use, zoning requirements? Can workforce
and talent attraction meet the needs? Can the public and private partners move together? And can the
company reduce uncertainty and increase their strategic advantage, serve their customers, and compete
globally by choosing this location?
The last question matters. Our job collectively as a community is to reduce development risk and help
companies understand that we will work together confidently alongside them to accomplish collective
goals. The more certainty we provide, the more risk we remove for site decision makers and the more
competitive we become nationally. And we certainly saw that with that last project. We are already in
the business of preparing for what's next. How?
I'd like to talk about that. The City of Bloomington's Will Serve letter for the Monroe County Airport
is a meaningful step in that direction, and it's a forward step. It's not just a technical document,
it's a readiness signal to site selectors, to companies, to developers, existing employers,
and defense-related industries, and that this region understands competition and is taking critical
steps to win. The move says Bloomington is preparing
Monroe County is preparing and the region is thinking ahead. We're also encouraged by progress connected
to the Ellisville sewer expansion efforts and the federal support moving through Congresswoman Erin
Houchin's office. That's another critical, meaningful step moving forward. Sewer may not sound exciting,
but is often viewed as the backbone of investment in economic development.
infrastructure readiness that demonstrates how serious communities take business retention, expansion,
and attraction. Road, water, sewer, broadband, aviation access, permitting shape, whether community
can support business growth here. Communities are drawn and companies are drawn to our talent and educated
workforces, the quality of life. We have Indiana University, Ivy Tech, Crane, the airport,
and our innovation ecosystem, the mill and the forge, their leaders in their space, not to mention the
culture, the arts, plus a whole lot of other things that add up and matter. We are community preparing
for what's next today. We're not just talking about readiness, we're delivering it. The BEDC will continue
to convene, coordinate, advocate, identify gaps, and connect the dots between business needs and community
capacities.
Opportunities favor preparation, and preparation is required from all of us. Thank you. Now, on to the
really exciting part of the show here, and I want to introduce our next guest here and make
this introduction. Probably needs no introduction. Everyone knows he's back by popular demand. Mr. Phil
Powell, he is the executive director of the Indiana Business Research Center. Phil Powell has been in
business and the economic
faculty member at the Indiana University Kelly School of Business for 29 years, and he serves as the
executive director of the Indiana Business Research Center. Without any further ado, I'm going to get
Mr. Powell up here for his high-power energetic review of our economy and the region. Thank you, Mr. Powell.
How we doing? Before we move on, I know our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow citizens who were
impacted last night. So if you were impacted, we're thinking about you and we're here to help. This
is the time when B-Town really rises to the occasion. So I get this question a lot. Phil, how are we
doing economically? How's Bloomington doing economically?
Well, I can have a lot of answers, but you got to go to the data, right? Here's my bottom line. How
is Bloomington doing? We're hanging in there. We're hanging in there. And when I talk Bloomington, I'm
talking about Greater Bloomington, I'm talking about Monroe County, talking about our friends in Ellisville,
all around the region here. So what does the data tell us? And I'm going to give you some high flying
data here. I'm not going to go too detailed, because I want to get... And then I'm going to give some
perspective on perhaps how we think about
how the region or the county needs to move forward in terms of economic development, just a framework.
Because there's a lot of great things to leverage here. There's a lot of great opportunities. And we're
hanging in there. Actually, the county's doing better than... You may have heard me speak in November.
At that time, we were really very scared. The data was very... There were a lot of dark shadows from the data.
But actually, Bloomington is hanging in there. I'll give you some data. So for example, our unemployment
rate right now, right? At the state level, we're at 4%. In Bloomington metropolitan area, 3.8%. So we're
less than the state, right? And again, higher education, this has been a challenging 18 months for higher
education. And I've also, I'll bring up some, one good place to compare us to right now is our friends
at Purdue and Tippecanoe County.
And we're doing better in some areas and doing not as good with our broilermaker friends. But also,
more importantly, employment growth. For the last year, employment here has grown 4x what we've seen
in the state. Now, it's not fast, but we've seen about 1% growth in Monroe County for the last year.
At the state, it's only been about 0.2, 0.3%. So again, we're showing some...
pleasantly surprising resilience in this economy. And it has to do with an increasing diversity of what
is driving our prosperity here in our backyard, here in Beatown. What are the biggest drivers of that
employment growth right now? Well, healthcare, employment's up 7%. Now, part of that is sort of a bittersweet
story because we've seen a lot of closures in healthcare facilities in the uplands region.
And so what's happening is that consolidation is happening here in Monroe County with our regional hospital
and the great resources that IU Health and other providers provide. So we saw 7% growth in healthcare.
Manufacturing, we Hoosiers love to make things, right? We love to score touchdowns and become national
champions, but we also love to make things. Manufacturing in Monroe County is up 3%. So doing well,
and that's in spite of, you might say,
I heard about those layoffs at Novo Nordisk. And yes, so you gotta understand folks that businesses
right now are navigating this whole issue of the relationship between technology and labor, right? We're
gonna have some announcements of retrenchment like we had at Novo Nordisk. We're gonna have
some announcements like we did at Simtra in the same industry of expansion, right? Don't take these
single announcements as some sign of economic apocalypse, right?
Businesses are expanding and retrenching, they're adjusting to this new reality called artificial
intelligence. Our economic models at the Kelly School of Business suggest that the last two quarters
of 2026 are gonna be a lot better than the first two quarters. We're seeing a lot of uncertainty come
out of the market as we solve some of these larger geopolitical and policy issues. That's really what's
been holding our national and our local and state economy back.
We expect a much, we talked about risk. The risk that we've been seeing have been more policy related
than they have been fundamentals. If I had more time, I would reassure you that the national economic
fundamentals are quite strong when we look at debt and capitalization. There's a lot of good news out
there that doesn't make it to the surface. So we're not expecting a recession. We're actually expecting
a better second part of the year than the first part.
Where we have perhaps two other points I want to make on the employment side in Monroe County and in
Greater Bloomington is that we actually saw shrinkage while we saw growth in healthcare manufacturing.
We've also seen 13% growth in construction. 13%, right? Anytime you see growth in construction, that's
good for future prosperity. Part of that we see across the street over here, right?
So growth in manufacturing, growth in healthcare, growth in constructions, those are both good signs
of our economic backbone getting a little stronger. Where we did see some shrinkage, which was kind
of surprising, was we actually saw a shrinkage in accommodation and food services of about 2%. Now part
of that is a pullback. We've seen American households sort of pull back in some of their travel during
the second half of 2025.
Also, you might say, well, Phil, our biggest employer is in educational services, right? Indiana University.
Educational services is about 20 to 25% of our economy here in B-town. Here's the good news. In educational
services, we saw 1% shrinkage in educational unemployment, which is actually given the challenging
environment of higher ed and even K through P through 12 education. That's actually a pretty good number.
In Tippecanoe County,
at the home of Purdue, whereas we saw 1% shrinkage, they saw 3% shrinkage. So Indiana University, the
wonderful institution of which I've been a part of, quickly on 30 years next month, is hanging in there,
and is making sure that we're delivering the value and the employment and the jobs that we need for
this community. And while we did see some shrinkage in educational services, and it's not just IU, that's
our friends at Ivy Tech, and also in P through 12,
But while we did see 1% shrinkage in educational services employment, actually total wages paid went
up 5%. So in terms of economic stimulus, dollars on the table, we're still delivering in terms of educational
services. And a lot of that is IU. So good employment growth, low unemployment. It's like, Phil, there's
some good news here. You kind of seem a little rosier than I expected.
Where's our Achilles heel? And you've heard me preach about this. While we have seen aggregate growth
in income, while we have seen aggregate growth in employment, what the average worker is making per
hour of work, which economists would argue is the ultimate measure of prosperity in a community, is
what do you make per unit of work? What do you make per unit of effort? Or average hourly earnings?
Our average hourly earnings in Bloomington, and I double and triple checked this this morning. Our average
hourly earnings in Bloomington, Monroe County has shrunk 4% in the last year. The average worker in
our community is making 4% less than they did a year ago. That's on average. And that's in an environment
of 4% inflation. So that's an 8% reduction in real wage. Compare that to Indiana,
Where mine is 4%, the state is, the average Hoosier worker went up 4%. For the average Hoosier, their
wage is kept up with inflation. And in Tippecanoe County, they're up 8%. So in terms of what we're making
per hour, this is an Achilles heel for our economy. We need an economy that generates higher wages.
And we know that. We know the problems that I mentioned have been here are structural. You know what
the quickest way to increase the average wage is? Let's retain our graduates from campus. Let's create
an environment where they want to live and work here. The average college graduate in the United States,
based on survey data, 60% of them, their first preference for where they want their first job is where
they went to school.
So the focus that we're seeing, the increased focus that we're seeing from IU on retaining our college
grads, that's one way to help that wage issue. Because college grads get paid more, they bring value
to the economy, and the faster and more we can retain them, the better we can raise the average, but
also create high incomes, which multiplies the economy and lifts all boats.
So while income and what we make per hour has been our Achilles heel, and this is where we really need
to work, and it is that average hourly earnings statistic is what I would encourage our leaders here
in the room to look at and monitor. But if you heard me in November at our future cast that we do, I
was really bullish on our growth in private business, our growth in the private sector.
Right? And there the news continues to be good. Our growth in terms of number of businesses, whereas
it grew in the state only about 1%, it's grown in Monroe County by about 2%. So our creation of new
businesses, our creation of new commercial establishments is happening at twice the rate of the state.
And even more impressive is that we've seen employment in the management of companies and enterprises,
that's up 8%. And I would say that's a shout out to what we're seeing from Amplify Bloomington. That's
a shout out for what we're seeing from the high quality incremental growth we're seeing out of the Trace
District. If you were at the IU Founders and Funders Network Summit last month, very inspiring, right?
And we're highlighting some of the great resonance, right? Yeah. More businesses like this, right, that
are connected to the university, that are connected to this ecosystem that the university's building,
but in partnership with phenomenal investment and energy from our partners outside the university here
in the community. And what that does, folks, what that does is that tees up what
as one economist, as me, would suggest is a way to frame how we approach economic development. We have
challenges, right? There's price of housing. I've mentioned wages. Also, we struggle with economic equity
here in the county. We're outliers in those variables. But if you want to focus on moving the needle,
here's a way to think about it.
If you study the way that communities and cities and metropolitan areas are growing, what's happening
is, is that they're focusing on specific points of geography in your region. If you look at the story
of how metropolitan regions evolve and change, it starts from specific points in those geographic areas
where you have
smart, creative, innovative people coming together and talking and interacting and working together
and living together and drinking beer together and watching college football games together, right?
This is what we call creative collision. Even in this 21st century technology economy where we've celebrated
remote working, it's the actual creative collision, the actual act of people being in the same space,
in the same neighborhood,
in the same office working together that is driving innovation and is driving the fastest economic growth.
So as we think about Bloomington, as we think about Monroe County, as we think about the uplands, let's
think in terms of these points of creative collision. The trades district, the airport, the convention
center, right? There's other places... I'm not giving justice to all the points of geography in the
region here.
But what happens is, is that creative collision generates innovation. And that innovation creates businesses.
It grows businesses. It elevates incomes. And what happens is, is that the region changes and evolves
from the inside out. That is how the metropolitan areas and the cities and towns that are growing fast
are looking at it and they're growing. They don't think about it just in terms of how do we fill our
vacant lots, right?
It's people that drive economic development, and where people are coming together, it happens. We also,
so we want to think in those terms geographically. Also, I want you to see my great institution, IU,
as this phenomenal source of economic value. And in the 21st century economy, university research is
playing more and more and more
of a role. So whatever hose that we've got hooked up to Indiana University, we want to take that off
and we want to make it bigger, thicker, and put it in there, or hook up more hoses. Because university
research begets intellectual property, it begets innovation, it begets entrepreneurship. And as you
know, one of the pillars of the IUB 2030 plan is service to our state, which means service to our community,
which means what? Elevation of prosperity for Bloomington.
And when we talk about innovation from university research, that commercial activity around the country
always nests itself in an innovation district. And that's what's happening here in downtown Bloomington,
especially with the Trace District. And we're starting to see the fruits of that investment. And I just
quoted you some numbers. Again, new business growth, twice the rate of the state, where 8% growth on
high level
managers and entrepreneurs that have come into the city. The trades district is part of that. The university
is part of that. Other parts of the city are part of that. But again, leveraging IU in terms of not
only the graduates, we want those graduates to stay here, but also the university research of which
President Whitten and her team and the campus team here in Bloomington have really doubled down on.
And while we faced a challenging higher ed environment, IU continues to increase its research dollars
and increase the connection that it makes in terms of economic impact. The last thing I'll leave you
with, which will set us up for the panel, and again, let me back up. If we confuse university research
with business creation and innovation, that's an exciting environment, right? That's how we keep our
graduates.
Also an important part of that, and this is a challenge I gave to the region and the BEDC a year ago,
and that is one missing element of that is we need about, I would argue, we need about a half dozen,
we need to recruit about a half dozen dynamic companies from the outside. I'm not talking about the
big guys like Microsoft or pick your big company, right? Go out and recruit those mid-sized companies
that are growing really fast, right?
because it's the midsize, it's the newer midsize companies that are on the cusp of their industry, that
are growing fast, that are going to be the source of what can make Bloomington even more competitive.
But we've got to bring those companies in, and it gets back to the great elements of the recruitment
strategy that you heard from Val and Clark. Lastly, what would I challenge us to do? I would challenge
Bloomington to answer the state's call to invigorate
execute and promote a regional uplands economic strategy. In March, the Governor, Governor Braun and
Secretary Adams announced a billion dollars in tax breaks for the bio heartland strategy out of central
Indiana. Central Indiana
came together. The mayors of the region came together. They put together the Bio Heartland Strategy.
They made a choice to focus on one set of industries. And they put together a plan. Luckily, the Indiana
Business Research Center and the Kelly School of Business, it was a privilege to be part of that study.
But they came together and they said, we're going to plant our flag on animal plant and human sciences.
And everything that goes into that, including food and health services delivery.
And what we did is we pulled the data and I got to be a part of this. We had mayors around the table
and we took the data and we identified in that nine county region which of 200 sub industries each county
had the opportunity in. And it built a win-win. And so the same opportunities here in the uplands. And
we're happy to be part of that if you'll so invite us in terms of IU and the Kelly School.
But this emphasizes that our state is calling upon the regions to be better versions of themselves.
To step up, make that vision, and move forward, and the status says, hey look, we're there to support
you. We're there to support how you define how you're gonna be a better version of yourself. And this
effort builds upon the relationships and the cooperation and the coordination that you saw with Ready
One and Ready Two.
It also helps to solve the problem of how in any region you've got big players, right? But then you
can solve this issue of how do we work together so that everybody wins? That's what we've been able
to establish in central Indiana. It's not just about Indianapolis, but it's also about Tipton County,
which is 0.5% of the regional GDP. We found industries in Tipton County,
that are now part of the Central Indiana Strategy sitting alongside IU Lab, which is a $150 million
investment in life sciences. So with that, I want to move into a discussion of maybe how to put on the
table how Bloomington can activate some of these thoughts and ideas. And so it's a privilege for me
to introduce our two panelists. And I have the privilege of moderating
some great questions which I hope provoke your thought process. First, I want to introduce Josh Richardson.
Josh has served as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation since October of last year,
doing a great job. And I actually got to work with him in the role he had held before that, and that
was commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. And before joining IEDC, Josh had
a very decorated and
prestigious career at DWD and transformed how we manage our workforce here in Indiana. Josh is an IU
grad, has his law degree from McKinney School in Indianapolis, and before that, he's a cardinal. He
got his bachelor's degree at Ball State. But without further ado, I'd like to introduce President of
the IEDC, Josh Richardson.
I tell you what between walk-up music and following Phil Powell I'm gonna have to dig really deep not
to let the energy level drop here
So again, it's great to be here in Bloomington with you all. I try not to use lines that are overused
that you've all heard before, but it is super exciting to be here in the home of the national champion,
IU Hoosiers. This would have been two years ago, a year ago, I would have had to check notes and say,
well, that can't be right, but today we get to stand here and celebrate that all together, so that's
wonderful. As Phil has mentioned, president of the IEDC, a role I've been in for six months, but I do
think it's important to talk about that background. Almost 20 years of history in state government,
I worked in Governor Daniel's office early on in my career, but early on in the Braun administration,
there was a real recognition of the link between workforce development and economic development. The
fact that Indiana's future in economic development would be limited if we cannot produce the type of
workforce and talent that would be needed.
to attract businesses to our area. Here in this region of the state, you have a huge advantage there.
Phil talked a little bit about the opportunity and the potential and the need to retain our graduates,
talked about the use of research, but I will tell you that when we pitch businesses, when we encourage
them to come to Indiana, we really use in every single pitch that we do the higher education institutions
that we have within our state because of their ability to produce workforce talent. So it certainly
is an asset in this region, but an asset across the state for us as well.
When I came into this role, I came in with a couple of really high-level directives from Governor Braun.
One is to focus on jobs and wages as the measure of our economic success. While that sounds really obvious
on its face, I will tell you that as an agency like mine, the IEDC is unique. We're a competitive agency.
We want to win deals.
But it's also really important that as we do that, we remember why deals matter. Yes, we want to be
business friendly here. We want to move at the speed of business. We want to have the kind of environment
that allows businesses to succeed. But the reason why any of that matters is because of the opportunity
that it gives Hoosiers to advance their lot in life and their careers. And so it's really important
to work on wages. As Phil's pointed out, Indiana over the last 20 years, really over
the last 40, if you look back further, then that has struggled to move on that per capita income as
compared to the rest of the nation. So at the IEDC, over the last year and a half, Governor Braun, in
the last six months with me, we continue to increase the average wage of incentivized jobs. The number
last year finished just under $40 an hour for projects that we had incentivized. So far through this
year, we're at $44 an hour.
we can tend to continue to push that number higher because that is the way that we make a difference
in a low unemployment state like the one that we're in right now. And I mean both the state of Indiana
and unemployment state more broadly. Employers are competing for talent and so as we incentivize projects,
we want to make sure we're bringing the kinds of high quality, high wage jobs that Hoosiers need. The
next priority and this has come up
I think with everybody who's been to the microphone today, is a greater focus on regional economic
development. This is important for a number of reasons. Others have made the case, and I think that
we'll talk about it more on our panel. You know, 20 years ago when the IEDC was created, by itself the
creation of a quasi agency that would move at the speed of business was fairly unique. It was a competitive
advantage for Indiana versus a lot of states in the nation that we were putting this focus on economic
development.
Well, fast forward 20 years later, success breeds a lot of copycats, and we've seen other states set
up methods of doing this. Ohio, just to our east, has devoted a lot of the revenues from their liquor
taxes to their economic development efforts, so they're very well-funded as they do this. But what we
find more and more is at a high level, while we can work to create the conditions that put Indiana on
the radar, ultimately, the business doesn't move to Indiana. They move to a location. They move to a
region. They move to a spot.
that has done the work that it needs to do to be prepared.
for that type of entity. And so we'll talk about this more as we move on. I know it'll be a topic of
discussion as we move through this, but really the work that you're doing here, to have sites ready,
to have identified the partners that are needed to act on this. I think we talked about this earlier,
the task force, as Valerie had said, that could turn on a dime. And I think it's a really nice way to
say it because when we do these economic development deals, it's not creating the task force because
there's a potential project. It's having a task force already ready with
identified partners that can turn and adapt to the needs of this business so that we can locate here.
Also, incredibly important to have a community that is rallied around what is our strategy, what are
we trying to attract. I think it's really easy and we want to be welcoming to all types of industry
and all types of business, but I think it's important that each region has a sort of
some sort of focus, some sort of strategy alignment around the idea of the advantages that your assets
give you and what you'll be able to do in terms of attracting business. So with that, I'll turn it over.
I'll move to the panel where I know we'll address more of these questions, but it's good to be here
with you today. Thank you, Josh. It's great to have you on the panel and look forward to a
great conversation. Our next panel member, who I've known really well since his days at IU, Trevor Fowdy.
Trevor Fowdy is Chief Operating Officer at the Applied Research Institute, or ARI, which is based here
in Bloomington. The mission of ARI is to unite America's technology ecosystem, connecting innovators
and governments with the resources and partnerships that power transformational ideas. Before ARI, Trevor
was part of the IU family. He served as Associate Vice President for State Relations here at Indiana
University. Trevor earned his bachelor's from Bethel College,
and is Masters in Public Affairs from the great O'Neill School, which has the number one MPA program
in the nation. So let's give it up for Trevor. Good afternoon. Great to be here. I always enjoy to come
back to Bloomington, see a lot of familiar faces about
16 years ago now, I went to work for then Representative Todd Young in his Washington office, but came
back to the district quite a bit with him and spent a lot of time in Bloomington. Nine years ago, I
went to work at IU where I worked with Val Peña quite a bit in that office. And so when Val called
a couple of weeks ago and said, I need you to help us with this lunch. I know Val well enough to know
that that wasn't a question. And I said, all right, I'll be there. And I think everybody here knows
what I mean.
But it's great to represent the Applied Research Institute. We've been based here in Bloomington since
2017. If you don't know what we do, I'll give you a real high-level overview, and then I'll talk about
one of our newest initiatives, which is part of the reason why I'm here today. But we were founded as
a nonprofit with a mission focused on crane. And essentially, how do we draw on the R&D capabilities
of IU, of Purdue, of Notre Dame,
to help Crane expand the program offices that they have and the research and work that they do to support
the military. So a lot of early work was in hypersonics, in microelectronics, fields like that that
Crane was interested in working on and had some expertise. Over time, that sort of expanded. Most of
the programs that we run now, we run several for either Crane or the Department of Defense directly
in different agencies. But it's really about how do we speed up innovation?
How do we speed up acquisition at the Pentagon so that great ideas can be transitioned to help keep
our country safe and to help keep the world safe? So we do that across a number of different programs.
Most of them fall into the category of tech scouting. So we have a special designation with DARPA called a Partner
partnership intermediary. We're the sole entity that has that with DARPA, but we do a lot of their tech
scouting around the countries with academics, with small businesses, helping them find interesting research
ideas and topics that they may want to bring in. We run a program for the Defense Innovation Unit called
OnRamps, and we run that nationally. There are currently seven or eight offices. We're adding a couple
more this year. That continues to grow. That program was really started in Silicon Valley, and how do
we bring big tech
to the Pentagon and to the federal government. And after early success with that program, they said,
we're probably missing lots of pockets elsewhere around the country. And so now we run that program
to help tech scout around the country for them as well. We ran a similar program for Crane up until
last year called the Midwest Tech Bridge. Some of the reorganization of the Pentagon, that program has
gone away, but we still help Crane through other programs, find commercial solutions to some of the
challenges that they're trying to address for the Navy.
We also run a series of procurement platforms. I won't spend a lot of time talking about those today,
but department-wide, the average time it takes to execute a contract is five months, 150 days. And through
our platform, which is really designed to help non-traditional contractors and small businesses figure
out if there's a demand signal, we're down to about a 35-day average and have regularly started executing
contracts in a week. So really exciting stuff there at a time when
the government's figuring, trying to figure out how to buy faster. But then about five years ago, we
started doing work for the state too, through IEDC. Josh has been a great partner since he's come in.
And we have a couple of national programs that we went after, but to be based in Indiana and looking
at key economic sectors in Indiana. So the first was a Microelectronics Commons Hub through the National
Microelectronics Commons Program.
That is based down near Crane, and that looks at how do we speed up innovation, how do we speed
up manufacturing. You'll notice a theme in a lot of this, how do we make stuff in Indiana in fields
like microelectronics, where we've not historically had a deep bench. And then we did another one in
biotech. John Fernandez helped lead that for us in looking at a regional tech hub program through the
Economic Development Administration.
John was the right person to help. He has a little experience with the EDA. But that's located
in Indianapolis and focused on how do we drive biotechnology manufacturing and workforce development
in Indiana. And again, part of that is focused on strong life sciences industry. There's also a thread
to national defense there as Crane increasingly gets involved in a program called BioMade that the military
runs focused on biotechnology.
And then this last year in January, we got a designation in the state through the Federal Aviation
Administration to manage a UAS test site. We are the ninth in the country, partnered with Jan, if you
don't know Jan Schuller-Hicks here in the back, make sure you get to know her. She does a lot of the
economic development work for IEDC in defense and around crane and in this area. She was a great partner
on that. We worked with them to design a program for a drone test site in Indiana.
And then we successfully won that. What's unique about our test site versus the existing test sites
is we were the first test site allowed to use military operational areas and military ranges. The Department
of War has made several investments in Indiana in the UAS space, and I don't think a lot of people realize
that. Camp Atterbury is where they do their prototyping.
The prototyping office sets their policy there. They do all their testing and demonstration events there.
And that's really the military testing evaluation side. Last fall, they also announced that the drone
dominance program office, which is part of a national effort, and the drone dominance program is focused
on the manufacturing side, that's run through crane. And they put a billion dollars through crane to
start to figure out manufacturing and supply chain. And so what we really pitched the FAA on was we
can piggyback on that and help with the commercial sector.
And testing evaluation is important. We think there's a lot of opportunity with IU and Purdue and Notre
Dame and industry that is increasingly locating here to do a lot of that testing and evaluation. But
ultimately, we have a bigger vision with the state, and that is for a component manufacturing ecosystem.
Historically, we've been very good at that. We do it in the auto industry. We've done it in the RV industry
and the boating industry. And a lot of that infrastructure is in place from our small towns that are
built around their tool and die or machine shops to some of the assembly factories. We think there's
a real opportunity here for the state of Indiana and communities around the state to contribute to the
growing use of drones. And so we're focused on the commercial side, but we also have access into those
military ranges through partnerships.
that will really allow for dual use ecosystem to grow up and take advantage of some of the things I'll
talk about. Thank you. Thanks, Trevor. There's some amazing behind the scenes stuff going on in your
area of defense that
we don't know about, so thanks for sharing that. Great to have this panel. I wanna ask a few questions
and take advantage of our two great guests to again, provoke some thought on how Bloomington moves forward.
Josh, I talked about how the state is ready to empower the regions, right? And we saw that with the
announcement in March. So my question to you is, you've got regions that are primed
and ready, and you've got other regions that perhaps are still working on that. From where you sit at
IEDC, what differentiates those regions of the state that are ready to go, ready to be empowered with
all the tools that IEDC has versus those regions that are not? It's essentially entirely about alignment.
It is about the assembly of the appropriate partners in the room. That's the workforce, that's the site
readiness, that's the business community, and pulling those folks together with a
clear strategic path towards what they want to accomplish. And so I think that the issue isn't that
Monroe County or Bloomington or the surrounding area has to be the best site in the nation for any particular
thing. It has to put itself in a position to win these deals in the competitive searches that companies
do across the globe for sites to locate. And I think you have a lot of assets to do it.
The question is, is can you get the alignment behind it? The nice thing about CERDA, just to contrast
it, is that RDA is made up of the mayors of all of the places in that nine county region. And so they
have a more streamlined governance, which I think has allowed them to move faster. I think everyone
can do that. And the issue is alignment. Awesome. And Trevor, building on that, right, is that
We've been blessed with great investments by the Department of War, by the federal government. There's
a lot of talk that the benefit of that's not just the direct investment, but it's also the dual use
technologies. The internet was a dual use technology. It serves the purpose of defending the country,
but then you have the spinoff spillover effect in terms of innovation.
through AI's work connecting research, innovation, defense, and industry, where do you see this specifically?
Where do you see the strongest opportunities for Indiana communities to turn emerging technologies into
long-term economic growth, especially in terms of the dual-use thought process? Yeah, great question.
I think we're really headed back towards an era, particularly on the military side, where defense production,
defense manufacturing matters. We saw that in World War II with the arsenal of democracy.
I think we're headed back to that for a lot of reasons, right? We've seen how drones are being used
and air superiority is no longer defined by stealth and precision like it was a generation ago. It's
who can get the most mass on target. And so what the countries that make the most and make the most
quickly are going to be the ones that control the skies. That's where we see a lot of opportunity for
the state, right, is to revitalize that manufacturing base. I think on the flip side, right, the part
of the story we don't always think about with World War II is what that meant for commercial
activity that happened after, right? There's no modern computing without some of the work that was done
by the military in World War II. Several other big technologies came out of that. We have a modern jet
industry and commercial aviation because of the work that was being done and so on. And so I think for
local communities, right, there's going to be some degree of manufacturing, but it's what do we manufacture?
And we spend a lot of time when we look at programs that we want to go after or when we advise the state,
talking about where is our right to win, right? What are the strengths that we have? So I'll use drones
as an example. It might be hard for Bloomington to compete with the West Lafayette because if I use
expertise and produce expertise on airframe or airworthiness sort of issues. But there are a lot of
important component parts, batteries. How do we get the right chemistries and batteries that last longer
or some of the chips?
that go into those, there are some of those components where Bloomington could organize around that
and really have been, we could partner with them through the test site to do a lot of testing on those
technologies. Awesome. This is kind of a question for both of you, given that we're running up against
the top of the hour here. You know, where you guys sit, you see the state, right? Josh, you're with
the governor and you see the state and where it can go, you see the potential, right?
And Trevor, where you sit, you see all the federal funding and perhaps how Indiana can be this very
sophisticated puzzle piece. But when there's discussion of Bloomington and Ellitsville, all the other
great communities in Monroe County, Indiana University, Crane, our airport here, which is really making
strides, our broader regional partners, which make up the ecosystem and the uplands as a whole, when
those conversations are happening,
In your mind, what are our strongest opportunities, our strongest assets, and how do you see us playing
a differentiatedly positive role in the story of Indiana prosperity? Yeah, well, so the nice thing is
here in this area, really I think they align with where Indiana's potential is at.
Here in this area, you're especially strong there. So one is in defense. The new investments that are
being made in defense, Indiana has a chance to be big winners from there. There are political aspects
to that, but also our strong history in manufacturing and support of the defense industry. And so with
crane being down here, Indiana has a chance to win. And disproportionately, I think this region can
play a role in that. The next is in life sciences. And I appreciate that you pointed this out earlier.
And while we talk about this life sciences initiative and the billion dollars
that we've pledged over the next decade to creating 100,000 jobs in health and life sciences. When we
talk about that with CERTA, that's largely from the organization, but that is a statewide initiative.
We're looking for wins in life sciences and health sciences across the country. And clearly, I use expertise
in health sciences and otherwise give you a real chance to win.
The last piece of that that I think that we all are aware of, the question of where this all turns out,
other than great walk-up music, how AI and what role the university can play in helping Indiana usher
in this next phase of the economy. I think it's really important that we do that, and we've rolled out
a program called NAI, because everything has to have IN in it. But this is a program with CICP to help
businesses connect
with education partners, with higher ed partners, to really look at how they can implement AI and automation
and stay ahead of the curve. Indiana's been a manufacturing intensive state, and while we've worked
to do things to diversify our economy, and we should, we also want to continue to be dominant
in manufacturing. So I think this region is well positioned to take advantage of the things that I think
Indiana as a whole should be taking advantage of. Trevor? I mean, Josh just took all the good answers.
I think he checked off everyone I had. The one area that I will mention that I think you're increasingly
going to see a lot of attention around this is one of the next big industry. We just had the SpaceX
IPO last week, right, is space. There are elements of that that is an offshoot of defense, but I look
at an investment that Indiana University made I think about a year and a half ago into a partnership
with Crane around microelectronics, but it wasn't just microelectronics.
it was radiation hardened microelectronics. And I think a lot of people miss that that really matters
for what we're putting into space with satellites. I think there are some components of traditional
aviation and airspace sort of work that translates into space. And I think a lot of that goes hand in
hand with some of the drone work. And so I think there's an opportunity for communities that have a
research institution to start looking at those areas as well.
on the front end of that industry. Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed the panel. I think the big takeaway
here that I think all three of us would give to Bloomington is that I'm going to come back to what Josh
said, alignment. As a region, getting alignment around two things. What makes us special and different,
because that's how you compete. Just like in business, regions compete by being different and being
differentiated.
around that, and then you double down on what makes you special economically, on the industries where
you have comparative advantages. And if we can coalesce a little bit better around that, we're going
to move at not only speed of business, but like the speed of light. So how's that for an optimistic
statement? Anyway, hey, we're national football champions. We can do anything, right? So with that,
Thank you for your time. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Trevor. I'm gonna hand it back to our friends at...
I'm gonna hand it back to our friends at BEDC and Val. We actually have a few minutes for questions.
Oh, we do? If anybody has questions, please raise your hand. Carlos from Monroe County Airport. Hey.
How's it going? I just... With the folks that we have up here,
On the panel, I just thought I'd ask a natural question coming from the Monroe County Airport here,
just four miles outside of downtown Bloomington. Oh, there we go. I just made a note for myself. Given
that the Monroe County Airport sits in the Indiana drone
corridor that's currently being developed, we're kind of the de facto airfield for Crane, since Crane
doesn't have its own airfield. And we have this talk about merging, manufacturing, research, and testing
with the state, ARI, and the Monroe County Airport kind of sits right under all of that. Does anybody
see a pathway or
maybe a recommendation for what the Monroe County Airport leadership should be doing to have a place
at the table or provide a space for some of this to come together on our hundreds of acres of developed
land out there at the airport. Yeah, I think there's a great opportunity. The corridor that you mentioned
is a partnership between Crane and the National Guard to create a 250 mile long
what's called a beyond visual line of sight corridor. Right now, you can't do a lot of testing unless
you maintain visual line of sight, which means you can't test more than about a mile away. But increasingly,
the FAA is allowing with certain systems in place to do that over longer distances. And so that'll go
near Bloomington. It'll use the airport as one of the launch or landing sites.
With the test site itself, though, there's more that we can do. They're an important partner to us.
That's going to be one of our first offerings as a test site once we get the paperwork completed with
the FAA. But we'll also, as the test site, have the ability to partner with the airport.
To set up different airspace right that might be used for a different purpose that isn't primarily militarily
focused. Some of that may be related to work that IU wants to do it may be related to what industry
is interested in coming here, but I think you're right to look at developing that land.
because I think there is a real opportunity. And I think what really sets Indiana apart from most of
the test sites, which tend to be out western to southwest, is just the wide variety of use cases that
we can do, right? You could launch from Bloomington, and you could do public safety testing around the
campus. You could do agricultural testing in actual fields, or you could do the defense work. I think
maybe we have time for one more question. Chancellor?
I'm John Ciorciari. I'm the interim provost at IU Bloomington. Thank you so much for all your insights.
You talked about comparative advantage, and clearly one of the comparative advantages is our technological
prowess as a major research university. I spent my morning touring around labs in biology and chemistry
and learning about cutting-edge work our faculty and grad students are doing on everything from molecular
biology to computer chip processing speeds and AI.
But I wanna ask about a different aspect of where we have a comparative advantage, and that's in the
arts and humanities. We have a world-class school of music and school of art architecture and design.
We have fabulous museums and cinema and auditorium, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on where that
comparative advantage should fit into our thinking about what makes for a competitive regional environment
for business. So I love that question. You know, we talk about this a lot. The next,
So this next generation of business attraction is going to be focused on workforce. And so I've mentioned
that a number of times, but we run into this bit of a problem where businesses increasingly want to
go to locations where the workforce exists. Workforce increasingly wants to go to locations where they
have multiple job opportunities. The way to get a little bit ahead of that is through investments in
the quality of place. And so through our ready initiatives, ready one, ready two,
We've been able to invest in communities, but very specifically, through the generosity of the Lilly
Endowment, I think there's $35 million that we're able to devote to enhancing the arts in communities.
And so yesterday at our IEDC board meeting, we talked a great deal about this, of how we can add art
into these places. Because what we find is, again, when we do these pitches, what we would love to be
able to do is to tell these companies, we already have a pool of available workers that have the skills
that you need.
just never happens. But what you can do is if you can paint the picture about your community taking
steps to be the kind of place that they can see attracting this talent, that is a good way to sort of
bridge that gap. And the arts are a huge part of attracting talent. And so I'm really excited that we're
going to be making a historic investment in the arts in Indiana. And I hope that that will help us keep
this talent around. It does absolutely add to the innovation culture. And the innovation culture ultimately
is what we depend on to create jobs.
Great question. Well, folks, I'm glad we have some time for Q&A. We're gonna hand it back to our friends
at BDC, but thank you for your time today thinking about Bloomington, thinking about our neighborhoods,
and thinking about our region. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Let's give another round of applause.
Phil Powell, Josh Richardson, Trevor Fowdy.
Thank you for the thoughtful conversation. Thank you, Phil, for giving us a little bit of hope after
your dismal speech in November.
So thanks for that. But more importantly, I think what we've seen is there is a lot of opportunity out
here and there continues to be that option for us in this region, for Monroe County, for Bloomington
in particular, things we're seeing in Ellitsville, the airport. So, you know, we have a lot of work
ahead of us today, so we can be ready for tomorrow, but I think that there is just huge enthusiasm for
it. So I do appreciate that. I do
want to thank our sponsors but one thing I want to do there are two folks that we left off the list
and because we left you off you get an extra extra shout out but we have representative Dave Hall here
he joined us so thank you so much Dave appreciate it
And then also County Commissioner Jody Madeira is here at the back of the room. So thank you again for
also coming. So just wanted to make sure that we did acknowledge that. Once again, we cannot do anything
without our partners and we appreciate each of you being in the room and helping us do that. Before
we adjourn, I do want to let you know that we have our next meeting. We take July off like
all of Bloomington does, so we will not be having a meeting in July. But on Wednesday, August 19th at 8 a.m.,
we will be featuring Scott Bullock from the Applied Research Center, also known as the ARC. And he is
offering subsequent tours that we can sign up for at that time to also see the ARC. This is gonna be
a real opportunity, because I will tell you once it opens, it will be much more difficult to get into the ARC.
But that we are hoping that a lot of you get a chance to be able to see that our next BEDC all member
meeting which will be Wednesday, September 16th at 4 PM as well. That's usually a little looser and
more fun than some of the other more serious topics, but
Anyone who is interested in knowing and learning more about BEDC seeing where we're going. I know a
lot of you I had a question in the back just kind of say so what's going on with the CEO search. We
have if you haven't heard we have.
contracted with Jorgensen Pace. They are a search firm. They have had started their stakeholder meetings
going around. Many of you may have already been called. If not, several of you still will. We have a
great pool of candidates, they have said, that are coming this way. We have a fantastic search committee
that is being led by Paul Quick of Smithville. Stephen Bishop is on it, who is sitting there up in the
front row. So we have a lot going on there. We hope to have a new CEO in place on September 1.
So we are excited about that. A lot of good things are happening in this community, in this county,
in this area, thanks to you all. So thank you for being here today. We appreciate again our guest speakers.
We look forward to having greater discussion in the future. Thank you. Have a great afternoon.