Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Economic development director details housing, early learning and workforce initiatives
Summary
The county’s economic development corporation presented a progress report highlighting business retention work, housing support through the Hoosier Homes down-payment assistance program and regional early-learning initiatives aimed at improving workforce participation.
Colton provided an update on Adams County economic development activities and priorities, describing business retention and expansion (BR&E) as the organization’s central activity and listing housing, early learning and small-business assistance as priorities for 2025.
Colton said the county’s BR&E work includes regular visits to businesses, follow-up problem-solving and partnerships with state and regional programs. He said the Indiana Economic Development Corporation produced a short video featuring Adams County’s BR&E work with Smith Brothers and that the video is available on the IEDC website.
On housing, Colton said the county’s housing coalition completed a market analysis and that the county-supported Hoosier Homes grama down-payment assistance program has 22 people signed up with 17 referred to lenders. “At last check, we had 22 people sign up for that, and 17 of those have been sent to a lender,” Colton said.
Early learning was identified as a workforce barrier. Colton described Imagine Early, a combined entity with the county and community partners, and said an executive director was hired in 2024 to pursue affordability, capacity and staffing solutions. He described two regional programs the county is using in 2025: a tri-share program (employers pay one-third of childcare, employees one-third and grant funds the last third) aimed at reducing cost barriers for parents, and a shared-services back-office model to help childcare providers with payroll, bookkeeping and administrative tasks.
Colton said tourism work launched in 2024 with a part‑time hire (Taylor) to develop tourism strategy and that the EDC provides a business coach two days a month through the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center to offer free coaching to small businesses.
Colton described the corporation’s funding structure: it is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that receives fee-for-service agreements from the county and municipalities, private investments from businesses and seeks project-specific grants but does not typically apply state grants for ongoing operating costs.
The board thanked Colton for the update and invited follow-up conversations on specific projects.
Provenance: Colton’s remarks and the board’s questions on BR&E, Hoosier Homes grama, Imagine Early and regional early-learning programs appear in the transcript segment covering his presentation and the following Q&A.
