Ferdinand's Hometown Competitiveness Success May Be Guide for Perry County

By VINCE LUECKE, Editor

TELL CITY - One nearby town's success could provide a recipe for improving the quality of life for Perry County's residents and helping the community compete for residents and community development.

The board of directors for the Perry County Chamber of Commerce is exploring the opportunities available through an Indiana Hometown Competitiveness Program and held an informational meeting last Thursday at the Schergens Center.

Marc Steczyk, town manager for Ferdinand, was the guest speaker. He shared his community's participation in the state program, which has at its foundation four pillars - entrepreneurship, wealth transfer, youth and leadership. He said Ferdinand's success in shaping its vision of itself, charting future growth and involving its young people could work in Perry County.

"The state provides the framework but communities shape how the program will work for them," said Steczyk.

Steczyk said Ferdinand has used the program to assess where it stands as a community in several areas, among them how to begin growing its population, attracting visitors and involving its youth in everyday life. As it developed its strategy, Steczyk said local leaders developed projects such as a Profiles in Success lecture series in which former grads meet with students and adults in the community. Also developed was a Forest Park High School Alumni Association and a new townwide recreation program that attracted more than 400 kids for activities this summer. A community movie night also drew hundreds of people.

Other programs are catered to entrepreneurs and developers who might be interested in the community.

Ferdinand's Hometown Competitiveness efforts also identified areas of future residential growth, a program whose success challenged conventional wisdom that the town was landlocked and had few if any areas for constructing new homes.

By meeting with landowners whose properties abutted town limits and finding which of those owners would be interesting in discussing a possible sale of some land for new subdivisions, the town can now showcase areas of future growth with developers.

Cheri Taylor, the county chamber of commerce's executive director who updated county officials on the opportunity to apply for the program, said she and other chamber leaders will use positive input from Steczyk and others to consider an application to the state, likely in the spring.

Chamber leaders see the program as a way to promote community development. Private donations would cover the approximately $7,500 in costs.

"The Indiana Hometown Competitiveness Program was developed to help communities such as ours reverse the population decline and 'brain drain' that has been experienced," said Missy Noble, chamber president, in an Aug. 20 letter to members and elected officials. "The state believes that Indiana rural communities can use this program to accomplish their economic- and community-development goals."

If the chamber moves forward, an application would likely be made in the spring, with a steering committee working to develop a plan. Steczyk said Ferdinand has communicated with residents through a town Web site and columns in the Ferdinand News.

Comments about the county's participation in the program can be e-mailed to perrychamber@psci.net.