FORT WAYNE — A group of northeastern Indiana business, education and government leaders hope to develop a plan for turning around the area's economic stagnation.
The new Regional Visioning Coordinating Group will use $150,000 in grants to put together over the next six months an economic growth plan and what steps should be taken to realize it.
The organizers say such action is needed because figures from the Community Research Institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne show that the region's average worker makes 78 percent of the national average wage, down from 95 percent in 1994.
"This is the most disturbing statistic to me," said Mike Packnett, president and CEO of Parkview Health and a co-chairman of the planning group.
The Northeast Indiana Foundation already sponsors initiatives for the area's defense, food-service and medical-device industries. The foundation is also sponsoring the new group, but its executive director, Mark Becker, said the efforts aren't redundant.
"There are a lot of things going on in these (industry) organizations, but we aren't aligned in the effort," Becker said.
Similarly, all 10 counties included in the group's study area around Fort Wayne have their own economic development organizations.
But until recently, many considered themselves to be in competition with one another, said John Sampson, president and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, an organization that aims to attract businesses to the region.
"Four years ago, it was almost frightful," Sampson said. "But we know there isn't a community here that can succeed without the others."
The study group plans to conduct surveys throughout the region and have public meetings in Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley counties.
