Obama Puts Elkhart County in Economic Spotlight
February 8, 2009 by Julia King
When President Barack Obama comes to Elkhart tomorrow (Monday, Feb. 9), he will presumably hear not only from the many average citizens who stood in line for hours to get tickets, but also from 3rd District Rep. (Republican) Mark Souder (my representative) and 2nd District Rep. (Democrat) Joe Donnelly (the neighboring district’s representative). The two northern Indiana lawmakers have joined forces to protect the flailing (failing) recreational vehicle industry, long a staple of the local economy.
As representatives of a hurting community, Donnelly and Souder are doing something right. They are trying to help their ailing constituents. So, too, is Obama – who recognized Elkhart County as a place that truly needs some tender loving care (also known as “jobs”).
I don’t yet know what Obama plans to say, but I hope it’s different from what Souder and Donnelly are saying. Our northern Indiana guys are looking to boost demand for RVs by requesting that Troubled Assets Relief Program (or TARP) funds be available for loans for RVs (these are funds that were initially established for the housing crisis).
Am I a spoilsport if I say I’m less-than-inspired? Getting people to buy recreational vehicles with stimulus money seems about as creative and forward-thinking as investing in home coal chutes. Maybe there’s more to the plan, but if there is, the details aren’t easy to come by.
Once upon a time a recreational vehicle was a brilliant idea (For real. It was.). But that was before we knew about global warming and before we sampled life with gas prices approaching $5 a gallon. Even if an RV niche can survive, it will have to be much (MUCH) smaller, meaning it cannot be expected to anchor our local economy.
Now, it would be different if Donnelly and Souder were pushing for a complete overhaul of the industry, looking to run RVs on vegetable oil, or hydrogen, or outfit every new RV with solar panels or portable windmills (Okay, I don’t know what I’m talking about here. I’m just throwing ideas out; you get the general picture.). But they aren’t. They’re thinking small when it’s time to think big.
The point is that the stimulus money should be used for the future good of our community – and the country as a whole. As sad and frustrating and scary as it is, not every industry will make it to the other side of this economic crisis. And not every industry should.
Northern Indiana desperately needs jobs, jobs that support families and send kids to college — and jobs that tread lightly on our water and our air and our land. The RV industry is not necessarily that industry. It might be, with massive adjustments. But it might not be.
So, when Obama is here, I hope he listens carefully. I hope he hears all the voices and all the possibilities that exist here. And most important, I hope he brings with him fresh ideas for our hurting home. We want to work. We want to grow. But to do that we need an economy that will survive for the long haul, not one that will limp along temporarily before finally tripping over itself and landing on its face.
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9 Responses to “Obama Puts Elkhart County in Economic Spotlight”
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I am not necessarily a person who is very practical in many ways, but I wanted to talk about an environmental project I did with the help of a friend back in 1989 and we did it once a year till 1999 when everyone was moving out of the area and could no longer prioritize it. I realize that with every wonderful idea comes lots of work and responsibilities and in no way am I suggesting that anyone who blogs in this group try it, but I just want to state it for what it is. There is no money to be gotten as it was totally volunteer for everyone for 10 years that we did it. It was the Living Earth Reforestation Project. We ran the whole organization, keying on one planting a year in early April. We ran the non for profit organization on $250 a year. We selected landowners and did one landowner planting a year, and as it happened we always got landowners fairly near the U.S. 20 bypass. We represented the landowner by planting the trees at no cost to the landowner. We usually did 5-6acre tract of seedling reforestation and we id it with Indiana University and Notre Dame students. We did about 12 or so landowners in the 10 years in operation and we geared our entire organization to that one date of planting. I realize that no one I’m aware has the time nor the resourced to revive such an idea such as this, but I think it would be nice if such a reforestation idea, reforesting private landowners under the paradigm I have suggested here could be done by the Obama administration to help bolster his national initiative to provide the country with a localized project and get folks who are interested in a domestic environmental peace corp of sorts. Our organization had a dedicated volunteer corp of about 10 people and the rest we recruited for the reforestation project from volunteers to just plant that one day a year. We reforested with seedlings and the numbers we reforested went over a ten year period of about 25,000 seedlings we planted. It takes a day and half to auger and plant five -six acres. The end result was that we reforested private landowners’ properties at no cost to them, and to keep the landowner honest, over two thirds of a reforestation project had to be hardwoods and not conifers. So, I only suggest this idea to see what the group thinks and if it is viable for a National reforestation initiative. At any rate, it sures beats assembling Recreational Vehicles. Thanks again for hearing my initiative. It has been my greatest legacy as I drive the U.S. 20 bypass, I say, we reforested that property and that property. The trees are my little children.
And believe me when I say that there is no shortage of private landowners in Saint Joseph and Elkhart Counties who would like a 3-5 acre tract of land reforested at no cost to them. Not only that, but Living Earth billed the state which any landowner can do and get reimbursed for two thirds of their effort. Our organization merely represented their interests tot eh state of Indiana that they wanted a wind break, beautiful tress, or a means to counteract the effects of global warming. I suggested this idea in the 90′s to Al Gore, but go no response. No matter, our impact was felt and those landowners we reforested much appreciated our efforts. We got the land reforested for them. We got their reimbursement from the state which allowed us the following year to reforest another landowner’s tract of land. And int the end the landowner gets their tract reforested with a multiplicity of tree species and the private landowner can also get a tax write off!!
Everybody wins!
And you can also plant prairie grass. My friend Conrad and I were inspired by this idea for multiple reasons. Our concern for global warming. Our concern for all of northern Indiana’s open spaces, and finally, the country had come off of the worst drought in 1988 than I had ever seen in my lifetime.
Sounds like a real labor of love, Kevin. Great project!
Hey Julia:
Do you know if there is a youth corp idea afoot because when I applied for a job the other day it seemed like one of the questions was phrased in such a way that the youth corp was mandatory, but I may have misread it. I frankly don’t see any problems with youth cleaning up highways, planting trees, building houses, ETC. My only concern is that being 48 years old like I am I have found myself no longer marketable in the work force and if folks for example, clean highways and plant trees, you don’t learn a skill that makes you money when you do enter the workforce. You see, this is what I find problematic about capitalism and marketable skills. There is so much so called unskilled labor that needs to be done, but no one willing to do for the reasons aformentioned. If folks could make money doing these things, we would have a better society, but to flock to manual labor has no value to the society. This has been unfortunately my experience.
Hi, Kevin.
I’m not sure I understand your question, but check this out. It may be of use to you if you’re local and looking for work:
http://ecwt.org/about/
Julia
Has President Obama implemented a government funded program for young people that will require them to do mandatory public service much like required military service in Israel for example.? Is this something our government is considering? Required domestic public works for youth? I presume that I would not qualify for retraining as I am not a dislocated R. V. worker, but I may be wrong about that. If youth, for example, are required to do public service, this would free up employment for older folks who need work. That’s my idea. Thanks.
Do people in this gardening program get paid for working in the garden or do they just get to eat what they plant in the garden? Thanks.