Mark Olejniczak, Herald Bulletin
The city of Anderson has seen its ups and downs and endured its fair share of pain due to the exodus of the automotive industry.
The official end to the automobile industry era in Anderson will come next summer when both Guide Corp. and Delphi Corp. close their doors. With local residents relying on the automobile industry for so many years, there is a sense of uncertainty among many citizens if these closings represent the end of high paying jobs in Anderson.
Local residents are pleased with recent developments in economic growth in Anderson, but aren't confident the new investments being made will be enough to replace all the manufacturing jobs that have been lost.
Jazzelyn Collins has lived in Anderson most of her life and has seen both the good and bad times in Anderson. She feels that the city of Anderson is taking the right approach with its diversification plan of bringing different companies to the community, but would like to see more jobs available for all local residents.
"I believe the city of Anderson is on the right track," Collins points out. "I just think it would be better if there were more jobs available from the investments coming into the community. We have to start somewhere but the new jobs are not equivalent to the jobs that have been lost."
When looking into the big picture of when Anderson will be back on track, Collins thinks it will be further down the road before a big difference is noticed. Even with the new investments coming, she feels the economic impact won't happen overnight.
"By the time the new companies come to Anderson, get set up, and hire employees, it will take a little while," Collins said. "I believe it will be closer to six years before people really see a difference."
Jeff Wall is from Anderson and he like many other residents has been affected by cutbacks in the local work force. Wall had been employed at Westfield Standard Lock Nut and he was one of 50 people who lost their jobs in the last six months.
He mentions he is pleased with the upgrades to the high schools in Anderson and improvements to the roads but feels it might be too late.
"I am happy with these improvements but I think it might be 20 years too late," Wall said. "All the jobs are gone and people are moving out of Anderson. All the jobs that seem to be left are retail and minimum wage jobs."
All the jobs lost at Guide and other manufacturing plants account for thousands of jobs lost, Wall mentions. He feels that the growth and investments will be in other areas of Indiana, like Indianapolis, Greensburg and Carmel.
But in Anderson plans and activities are geared toward rebuilding the economy by actively searching for employers, such as Nestlé Corp., and helping entrepreneurs launch their own businesses.
Growth in Madison County
Over the last year in Madison County seems to be heading in the right direction, according to a recent report issued by the Corporation for Economic Development. 2006 activity tops the previous decades' economic successes by hundreds of millions of dollars.
"That is the largest single year of new investments and job creation as well that Madison County has had in one year in at least 20 years," Mary Starkey, executive director, Corporation for Economic Development, said. She emphasized it shows the tide changing, even though it is still a year of transition with Delphi and Guide closing but it shows the momentum of new investment with the companies that are investing being high quality and solid companies.
She explained that the impact of Nestlé locating in Anderson will be felt for years, with the investment totaling $360 million and providing 300 new jobs when they open their doors.
When looking at Anderson and its growth potential in the short term, Keith Pitcher, president of the Chamber of Commerce for Anderson & Madison County, believes there will be more economic development through both the public and the private sector.
He notes that other companies will now take a harder look at Madison County because a well-respected company such as Nestlé made a huge investment in the local area when it could have gone anywhere.
Linda Dawson, deputy director of economic development for the city of Anderson, echoed these sentiments, adding that the city has attracted the interest of more companies since the Nestlé announcement, and is fielding more inquiries from companies that are looking to Anderson to locate.
"I definitely think the city of Anderson and Madison County are on an uphill swing," Dawson said. "Our location to the interstate and our work force is very attractive to companies. We have a history of being very service minded to assist companies in every area they need."
Marketing Anderson
To help with bringing other investments to Anderson, there are multiple programs in place to market Anderson by different methods, according to Dawson. One of these methods is advertising in site-selector magazines because most large companies prefer this method instead of an in-house selection process.
The other program in place to promote Anderson is sending city representatives to specific trade shows. This program includes both logistic and food processing trade shows. Through these shows city representatives will attempt to make contact with different companies for future investments.
"So we feel it is very important to get on the radars of these site selectors," Dawson said. "We have had a real good response from the ads that we have already placed in the last few months, and we have responded to several of these leads."
With the automotive jobs leaving, the economic development leaders are concentrating their efforts on bringing non-automotive investments to Anderson, and not be totally dependent on the ups and downs of the automotive industry.
Pitcher feels much of the diversified investment coming to both Anderson and Madison County is the real key to rebuilding the economy.
"Once we get to the point where we are more stabilized through being diversified," Pitcher said. "We will then be in a better position to be able to weather the ups and downs of a particular industry."
Small business potential
Pitcher feels it is important to bring in new investment to Anderson with companies like Nestlé and Mancor Industries, but points out the city needs to grow the businesses it already has in place.
From the Chamber of Commerce's standpoint the vast majority of jobs created across the U.S. are small companies with 50 to 100 employees and in some cases smaller. For that reason the Chamber of Commerce puts its focus into trying to nurture and grow the small businesses in Anderson, according to Pitcher.
"You need both, you need new investment and new companies but you also need to nurture and grow the ones you have," Pitcher said. "You always want to go for the bigger bang for your buck, but you don't want to miss even a local company that goes from 10 to 20 employees." But what is the pay?
Wage questions
With the job losses in Anderson, residents such as Collins and Wall are concerned whether high-paying jobs will return to the local community.
Dawson explained that people in Anderson who feel the high-wage jobs are gone are in the same position as several people across the nation.
These types of jobs are now being replaced by jobs in higher technology and she advises people to update their skills and abilities through some of the educational opportunities available in order to be attractive to companies for higher paying technology jobs.
"There is still going to be high-paying jobs such as Nestlé that will be in the manufacturing distribution industry sector that these employees will qualify for also," Dawson said.
Most of these advance manufacturing investments are high-capital investment with fewer jobs. The jobs they create tend to be a little higher paid and skilled than when they were the old line manufacturing, which is very labor intensive and lots of people with fewer machines.
"It is very competitive between communities for these projects," Starkey said. "The skill level for these jobs is certainly post-high school, and this is why promoting high-quality education is such an important plan for economic development."