Wayne County Commissioner Ken Paust will serve as chair with Mike Wickersham of Randolph County as vice president, Economic Development Group of Connersville and Fayette County Director Dan Parker as secretary, Rushville Mayor Mike Pavey will serve as treasurer and Union County Commissioner Alan Alcorn is a member of the executive committee.

Those men have served as the steering committee in the formation of the organization.

The executive committee will meet monthly while the entire board will meet quarterly.

Wayne County Councilman Jeff Plasterer has served as the interim director with the interim title removed by the representatives from Fayette, Randolph, Rush, Union and Wayne counties. 

Paust said the steering committee considered advertising for the director's position but the group does not have a lot of funds available to offer someone to leave a job to come to the area.

"The more we discussed this, we felt we have a very good person now who could do the job serving as interim director," he said. "Jeff has done an outstanding job and I would recommend him."

Plasterer retired from Ivy Tech Community College after 30 years, the final eight as director of the Ivy Tech Connersville Center. 

His salary will be $12,000 for the remainder of the year. He has an office in the Wayne County Administration Building.

The Eastern Indiana Regional Planning Commission has been in the planning stages since the dissolution of the old Eastern Indiana Development District. The district is the same as the EIDD except Henry County is no longer a member.

The federal Economic Development Administration encouraged the counties to reform a development group so those counties would be able to apply for EDA grants, which must come from a regional group.

The Southeastern Indiana Regional Planning Commission in Versailles provided help for the new district by applying for and receiving a planning grant in the fall of 2014 to begin the process of forming a new group.

In 2015, the county commissioners in the five counties adopted ordinances to commit to the organization and set dues at 20 cents a resident the first year, 30 cents the second year and 40 cents the third year. 

A mission statement, constitution an by-laws were written by the steering committee, consisting of a representative of each county.

The commissioners petitioned to the governor for approval, which has been received. 

Paust said Thursday the steering committee had signed the corporation papers prior to the meeting and sent them to the state. 

"I thank you for coming from all over our five-county region for one purpose, to improve economic development within our region," he said. 

"I have gotten a lot of support and the reason is regionalism which is becoming increasingly important," Plasterer said. "We share a workforce. We share transportation. We share an education system. We share common challenges and opportunities and together we can impact our region. We can make it better and improve the economy."

A year ago, the region began the Stronger Communities Together — SET — initiative to meet the requirements of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development process and that will be used in writing the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, which is required by EDA, he said.

The SET effort identified six proposed goals for the region:

• Develop a qualified workforce for all industry sectors with special emphasis on the advanced materials sector in order to retain and encourage growth of existing businesses in the region and enhance the ability to attract new industry.
• Strengthen the viability and increase the diverse outputs of the agriculture industry within the region.
• Improve the health of the citizens of the region while supporting the sustainable growth of health care providers.
• Identify and implement plans for the infrastructure necessary to achieve the economic growth and talent attraction, retention and development goals (above).
• Identify and implement plans for the quality of place facilities and programming necessary to achieve the economic growth and talent attraction, retention and development goals (above).
• Foster collaboration with and garner support from governmental and quasi-governmental partners to integrate elements of the SET plan into their own plans and programs by communicating effectively with all levels of local leadership.

The first three goals represent the largest employers in the region which the region will focus on going forward, Plasterer said. The other three goals support those first three goals.

Based on Stats Indiana 2014, the dues for Fayette County start at $4,694 and increases to $7,040 in 2017 and $9,387 the following year. In Union County, the dues are $1,449, $2,174 and $2,898. Wayne County, more than double the population of any of the other counties, will pay $13,534, $20,301 and $27,068.

"I think one of the really good things of regional planning is that it's you, owned by each of your citizens," said Susan Craig, director of SIRPC. "It gives you access to professional staff with services. There is very little we say no to. You have the roots in place and I'm proud to be here and happy I could play a small part in this. We'll be cheering you on."

The SIPC has served as the fiscal agent and will continue helping the new district until it is fully operational, she said.

Plasterer said the complete SET plan for the region should be done soon and then it could take a year or so for the completion of the CEDS plan.

He has been throughout the region meeting elected officials and will continue to do that. 

Currently, the only known EDA project being considered is the sewer planning for the Gateway Industrial Park north of Cambridge City by the Western Wayne Regional Sewer District. There are other projects that counties and cities will consider but first most of those are working on Stellar Communities planning, he said.

In the past, projects like the WWRSE grant would have had to have go through SIRPC to the EDA, but now, that can go directly from the local organization, he explained.  

"The key is to make sure our members know we're here, know that we are their organization and we want them to be engaged," he said. "Collaboration is hard work. In the long run, the collaborative relationship of the five counties is going to be much more fruitful for economic development."

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