Pike County Economic Development Corp., through its 501(c)3, the Pike County Progress Partners, announced plans to fight “Brain Drain” by building the Elmer Buchta Entrepreneur and Technology Center near the Petersburg interchange on I-69. The group announced the launch of a capital campaign to raise $600,000 needed to build the center.
The campaign was kick-started with a major contribution from Elmer and Judy Buchta.
Mr. Buchta is a long-time entrepreneur and businessman in Pike County. Prior to his retirement, he owned Elmer Buchta Trucking, LLC in Otwell, and was finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007.
Mr. Buchta said, "I would like to dedicate this Entrepreneur and Technology Center to the one entrepreneur I knew best, my father, Elmer Buchta Sr., who at a young age had a vision to 'move things.' With only an 11th grade education he taught himself to do just that. The first building he moved was a sheep shed. He continued from there to move covered bridges, barges, airport hangers and three-story solid brick historic homes weighting up to 500 tons. He taught me 'CAN’T IS NOT AN OPTION.'
"It is our job as mentors, community leaders, and teachers to be sure the young people of Pike County understand: they too have the opportunity to develop their own visions, their own dreams and ideas. They too can be entrepreneurs. They have no limits; except what they place on themselves. It is our job to help them remove their doubts, remove those limits, and help them realize they can do anything they have the passion for. I have met them! They will do the work; they have passion. It our job to help them understand they can and give them the opportunity to do. It is important that they know, when it comes to your passion, your dreams, your ideas, nothing is off limits and 'CAN’T IS NOT AN OPTION.'"
The new center will be targeting the graduates of Pike Central High School’s award winning Project Lead the Way program. Their students have competed and won awards at MIT and at the White House Science Fair where they were also able to meet President Obama. Their graduates are populating engineering programs at colleges across the state and many of those students are expressing their desire to return to Pike County to launch small businesses. While targeting these recent graduates, the center will also serve any entrepreneurs from the region looking for a business incubator environment.
Scott Willis, a retired electronics engineer with the Department of Defense and adjunct instructor at Vincennes University Jasper Center said, “Many of the former Pike Central PLTW students have already started forming business ventures while they are freshman and sophomores in college and would like to bring them back to Pike County in the near future. To not get a small business incubator in Pike County established in the next 12-18 months will most likely result in further opportunities lost for the area as these students will go elsewhere to establish their businesses.”
Mick Hetman, co-founder of Top Notch Toys Limited and owner of Hetman Design says, “The Elmer Buchta Entrepreneurial and Technology Center would host and showcase new technology, products and processes. For instance, drone technology and real-time crop data gathering lends a competitive edge. Farmers can benefit from the center. Robotics competitions for all ages can be hosted at the center. Generating excitement for new tech and innovation will inspire the next generation to follow their dreams. In the long term, the center can be affiliated with other similar facilities state and nationwide. I feel it’s our collective duty to embrace and empower the next generation of innovators.”
PCEDC and the Pike Progress Partners have raised 53 percent of their goal ($315,100) prior to this formal announcement of the capital campaign.