Kosciusko Redevelopment Commission member David Mayer took his oath of office Thursday, March 8, at the quarterly meeting.

WARSAW — KEDCo President George Robertson gave a presentation at the Kosciusko County Redevelopment Commission meeting held Thursday, March 8. Robertson spoke about the local workforce, affordable housing and projections on population growth.

“We are in our eighth year now,” said Robertson. “We average 300,000 new manufacturing jobs per year.”

Robertson told commission members that Warsaw made Site Selection Magazine’s top 100 list for micropolitan areas for facility investments. The publication describes the qualifying cities and towns as statistical areas with one or more adjacent counties that have at least one urban core area of between 10,000 – 50,000 people and adjacent territory with a high degree of social and economic integration.

“The interesting thing is that of the six small cities in Indiana that made this list, three of them are in northeastern Indiana,” said Robertson. “That’s the good news.” The six Indiana cities included in the top 100 list were Angola, Auburn, Marion, New Castle, Warsaw and Wabash.

Projections on population developed by the Business School of Indiana University show continued growth for Kosciusko County. “It l looks like we’re going to be in the 7 to 8 percent range,” Robertson stated.

He then shared information related to projected median age of the population by county. “As you can see, our median age is going to stay around 40,” said Robertson. “That’s pretty good – because many of our counties in Indiana, particularly rural counties, have aging populations. They’re losing lots of young people. That makes talent of future employment difficult and more challenging.”

According to Robertson, the employment rate in Kosciusko County is currently right around 40,000. “In 2010 when we started there were around 33,000 people working in the county,” said Robertson.

Affordable housing is a challenge in our area, Robertson explained. He shared information about a housing seminar session that will be held in Fort Wayne later this month and invited commission members to attend.

Other News:

• David Mayer was sworn in by County Auditor Michelle Puckett.
• Minutes from the January 2018 meeting were approved.
• The next quarterly meeting will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 14.