Truth
We find ourselves now in a time of challenge. We can ignore that challenge and cling to the strategies that sustained us for 150 years, or we can begin the difficult process of remaking ourselves for a new century.
It is time -- as one -- to embrace the challenge.
We all know what's happened in the last 10 days:
* Monaco Coach Corp. announced that by mid-September, it plans to close plants in Elkhart, Wakarusa and Nappanee, throwing about 1,400 people out of work. The closures follow just months after Monaco laid off another 600 workers.
* Coachmen Industries reported a $3 million loss for the second quarter. Even after consolidating plants and laying off about 260 workers, the company still anticipates what CEO Richard Lavers called "minor adjustments" to its work force.
* Sundowner Trailers announced plans to close its three plants on C.R. 6 and consolidate operations in Oklahoma, offering jobs to about 70 local workers if they're willing to move. The company does not intend to offer severance packages to those who stay behind.
* Borkholder Furniture closed its Nappanee manufacturing plant and showroom, resulting in the loss of about 80 jobs. Five Amish craftsmen now build the furniture.
* CoverMaster, which employed about 100 workers two years ago, closed its doors and said goodbye to its last 16 employees.
Political leaders acted quickly after Monaco, the fifth-largest employer in the county, announced its closings. U.S. Reps. Joe Donnelly, a Granger Democrat, and Mark Souder, a Fort Wayne Republican, began planning workshops to help Monaco workers find new jobs and training, and at the state level, Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Elkhart Republican, wrote to Gov. Mitch Daniels to ask for accelerated job retraining programs.
A group of area business and government officials acted even more aggressively, visiting Washington to lobby the Commerce Department for federal job training assistance. Meanwhile, back at home, Ivy Tech and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development began developing a retraining strategy.
So far, so good. But we need to ask ourselves a basic question: What kind of jobs will we train those workers to do? Because ultimately, we cannot build a vital, modern economy until we decide what kind of industries we seek to develop -- and, equally important, how we plan to recruit and retain those industries.
County commissioners want a study on the long-term viability of the two industries that continue to prop up our economy, recreational vehicles and manufactured housing. The study needs to begin immediately.
We also need to develop, once and for all, a countywide economic development plan that allows us to aggressively compete with other parts of the state for new industry.
Then, armed with what we've learned from the RV viability study, we need to decide how we intend to remake ourselves as an economy -- the industries we hope to attract, the businesses we seek to encourage and the incentives we'll provide.
Is it as a parts supplier for the alternative energy industry?
Perhaps. We certainly possess the engineering know-how, the ingenuity and the infrastructure.
As a hub for research and development in the life sciences -- areas such as biology, biochemistry and biophysics?
Again, perhaps. Our proximity to Notre Dame, combined with plans to build a new Ivy Tech campus, gives us a competitive advantage.
We can become anything we choose. But in the end, we must become something new.
That is our challenge.