By Marilyn Odendahl, Truth Staff
modendahl@etruth.com
NAPPANEE -- A layer of fresh crumbled crackers was piled on top of the soup and the green salad looked inviting, but Merle Holden gladly let his lunch wait while he reacted to news of a new industry bringing jobs to his town.
"It's terrific," the insurance agent gushed. "My gosh, we've got to do something. It's the greatest news we could hope to have. It's absolutely fantastic."
In a town that has seen its major recreational vehicle manufacturers bleed jobs over the past year, optimism is welcomed like a long-lost friend.
Thursday after the announcement of Electric Motors Corp. launching an electric-hybrid vehicle production in Nappanee and Wakarusa, residents and business owners echoed Holden, repeating over and over the best part of the new venture was the jobs it is expected to create.
More importantly, said Russ "John" Miller, those new positions will require workers to have skills different from those needed in the RV factories. No longer will employees just have to know how to work a screw gun; they will have to be able to work with high-tech equipment.
Miller is the third generation in his family to run John's Butcher Shop in downtown Nappanee. He is a friendly face behind the meat counter stuffed with steaks and chops, and has so accepted customers' habit of calling him "John" that he no longer introduces himself using his given name, "Russ." It's part of being in a small town.
While he acknowledged the budding green technology movement will make his community bigger, Miller shrugs off the notion that Nappanee will lose its spirit.
"I am glad," Miller said of Electric Motors coming to his town. "I believe it will be good."
Nappanee City Councilman Jeff Kitson took his 3-year-old daughter, Riley Grace, to the morning press conference where the venture was formally announced. He perched the little girl on his shoulders so she could see her future.
Kitson, who has been furloughed a few times from his full-time job, maintained the new venture will help the local economy utilize its strongest asset -- the ability to make things.
"This is the future," he said. "We need to step up and get back to what we know best, and that is manufacturing," he said.
When Marla Ramer lost her job at Monaco Coach Corp. in September, she decided that was the end of her manufacturing career. Going to school to learn a new skill did not seem like an option for the 56-year-old, so she returned to her retail roots and opened Mom & Me Floral Boutique in downtown Wakarusa.
The downturn in the RV industry has been especially hard on the younger workers, she said, and it is forcing them to look for different ways to make a living. Electric Motors may provide a needed alternative.
"I think it's great," she said. "If it brings jobs, that's what people are looking for right now."
Leann Osborn, owner of Natural Solutions health food store in Nappanee, hopes, like Ramer, that the new business will create more traffic by her front door and, in turn, bring in new customers.
"It's always exciting to have new jobs coming," Osborn said.
She had heard about Electric Motors and even met the company's president, Wil Cashen, at the town's prayer breakfast. Standing in front of a "Free Energy" sign, Osborn was excited about a green industry locating in her town, but she was most anxious to learn how many jobs would be created.
Tony Hargrove, owner of My Mechanic in Wakarusa, is familiar with electric car technology, having worked in the service department of an auto dealership for more than 10 years.
"I'm all for it," he said. "It's definitely a really good idea."
However, he wondered if the country has the political will to give up its dependence on foreign oil and if the electric vehicles would be affordable.
Hargrove says that although he has modified his diesel pickup truck to go from 11.7 mpg to 25 mpg, he would switch to an electric-hybrid version "in a heartbeat."