Daniels hoping for jobs

Governor sees opportunity in Hoosier Heartland, green energy.

by Jennifer Tangeman

PERU — As Gov. Mitch Daniels walked into a Peru restaurant last week, a woman asked him the question on many Hoosiers’ minds.

“What are we doing for Indiana jobs, governor?” Vickie Watts asked.

“We’re working on it every day,” Daniels said. “And we are working on it as hard as we can.”

Watts told Daniels she was on disability and had lost two homes. She lives in a mobile home funded by her disability checks.

“There ain’t no work nowhere,” she said.

Daniels said later in an interview he was hopeful the Hoosier Heartland could help maintain traditional industry and promote new, green jobs in the area.

The completion by 2013 of the segments from Logansport to Lafayette will attract business to the area, he said.

“What kinds of jobs could the corridor lead to?” Daniels asked. “It’s a pretty good guess that anything heavy materials. To get it where it’s going more quickly you save some real money.”

The governor said the project would instantly make locations on the highway more attractive.

“There’s a company talking about coming to Delphi because of the fact that they know the road will be there,” he said. “Now that they know for sure the road will be there they will make the investments in Delphi, in Logansport and that’s what we were out to create.”

Shortening travel times for companies translates into savings, he said.

“Jobs is the main reason we have worked so hard to make these record-setting investments,” he said.

Daniels used Cass County and the corridor as an example to tie traditional industry to modern green projects such as wind power. Indiana is a viable place to generate wind power, he said, because of the natural wind and the state’s proximity to the grid.

Logansport and Cass County provide an ideal location to manufacture equipment for that wind energy, he said.

“We’ve begun to see some companies that will be producing turbines or gears or the frames, for instance, for wind power,” Daniels said. “It makes sense to make wind turbines close to where they are going to use them, and sure, Logansport would be a candidate.

“It’s a lot better to make something heavy in Logansport if it’s going to White County or to the states due west of us.”

The governor said he wanted to note that green jobs should be used as an additional work force opportunity, rather than a substitute one.

“I think we should be careful not to think we should just walk away from the kind of jobs that have always been important to Indiana,” Daniels said. “I want to add these jobs to those we have. There’s not enough of them to just give up on manufacturing and logistics and so forth.”

Regardless of the type of industry, the governor said the Hoosier Heartland should be a benefit to Logansport and Cass County.

“Anybody at our highway department will tell you, I’m intensely interested in all our major projects, but the one I’m most excited about of all is the Hoosier Heartland Corridor, and that’s because it will touch so many towns, and some of the towns like Logansport that have always made Indiana great.”

Jennifer Tangeman is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or jennifer.tangeman@pharostribune.com.

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