Economic Summit held to attract and retain jobs

ELKHART – Elkhart County leaders took part in a summit on economic development Thursday.

The county once had the distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the country during the height of the recession, but as companies there continue to expand, it’s slowly getting back to business.

"I think what the county is facing is real typical of what happened to our company at Jayco, 2009 was our low point,” said Derald Bontrager, President of Jayco RV, Inc. based out of Middlebury.

At an economic summit with business and community leaders, Bontrager says business is turning around.

"The RV industry, as Jayco has, has pretty steady growth and we have hired back,” said Bontrager. “We had a job growth of about 50 percent since our low point in 2009 and we see that continuing to grow."

The state of the RV industry, especially locally, is to a degree a fairly good barometer of how Elkhart County is fairing economically. It’s not out of the woods yet, but it is heading in that direction.

A fact supported by the recent distinction that the Elkhart-Goshen area was named one of the top in the country for the growth of the value of what they make.

"Elkhart County as a whole is seeing some recovery. We have seen about $45 million worth of new investments so far this year and right around 1400 new jobs announced," said Dorinda Heiden-Guss from Economic Development Corporation.

Heiden-Guss says that could slow down because of the upcoming presidential campaign, but adds there could be further good news in the coming weeks.

"We hope to have several new announcements in the Goshen area, in particular where again we are working with existing companies expanding process and growing their business,” Heiden-Guss said.

The focus of the summit is to continually look at what cities can do to attract and retain businesses.