Crawfordsville/Montgomery County Chamber Of Commerce Annual Dinner

By Tim Timmons [email protected]

Anyone in attendance at the Crawfordsville Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce annual dinner Sept. 7 is in for a treat.

The speaker will be Nate Feltman – a talented, smart and ultra-accomplished man who is currently the CEO, publisher and co-owner of the Indianapolis Business Journal. Feltman has been the secretary of commerce, the top guy at the Indiana Economic Development Corp, (when it was first formed under then-Gov. Mitch Daniels) an attorney with Baker & Daniels and more.

Feltman said that growing local economies is a challenge – and one that Crawfordsville and Montgomery County seem to be handling well.

“There are a few (challenges) that are obvious but worth stating,” he said. “Outside the metro areas, the ability to attract talent – people (with the right skillsets), a strong and adaptable workforce, that’s hard to find. Then we have all the new technologies that are hitting us constantly. Those are even bigger challenges for more rural and smaller communities.”

He said there’s more.

“Population growth is a challenge for our overall state,” he explained. “We are one of the few out of the surrounding states that have had a positive – our population is going in the right direction, but it is a small growth. We have good growth going on in the donut counties, but Indianapolis is actually shrinking.”

Feltman said that economic development can be summed up as a kind of chicken and egg concept.

“The first thing (companies) are looking at is workforce, people they are going to use to fulfill that economic investment they just made. And then a lot of our counties have working age adults who are simply opting out of the workforce. That maybe was exaggerated during the pandemic. That’s tough, but it’s also an opportunity. How do we solve that? And child care is an issue that is preventing some from being in the workforce.”

Feltman said that housing is next.

“The housing challenge – shortage – is real,” he said, “and it’s across the entire state. If you can’t house the workers that come to the job, they either live somewhere else and you don’t get what they spend, or they simply find somewhere else.”

Feltman said the economic work being promoted by Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton, County Commissioner John Frey and others is important.

“Crawfordsville and Montgomery County are blessed to have those people, Wabash College and Ivy Tech, and some of the bigger companies like Nucor and Lakeside. There’s a lot going here.”

Feltman said working with Daniels was an experience.

“Those were heady days,” he said. “The concept (of IEDC) was alive, but not the actual IEDC. That started when Mitch took office. It was meant to move a lot faster and a lot more nimbly than government. That was a big deal, but the game changer was that for the first time the governor was in charge of economic development. He said we were elected to do this job, now let’s go do it.”

They were certainly busy.

“For the first time we started going back to places like Japan where no governor had been to for a long time, saying Indiana is open for business. At the same time Mitch was working on reforming the tax structure, Major Moves and the infrastructure. (Mitch) came in with an entrepreneurial attitude. He believed sincerely, as do I, that if you give more opportunities to Hoosiers that eventually a lot of good things happen.”

It’s clear that entrepreneurship is close to Feltman’s heart.

“The big businesses get the big headlines – but today, as it has been for decades, most of the jobs have been smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. Anytime you can support entrepreneurship growth that sparks growth. Everybody talks about Lilly, but that started with Col. Eli Lilly and a one-man shop.”

Tickets are still available for Chamber members for the Sept. 7 dinner. Although the event is approaching a sell-out there were still some tickets left as of press time. Contact the Crawfordsville-Montgomery County Chamber for more information.