Is Spencer County Indiana Dying?

“ While the (Solar Project) project would yield no major job opportunities, that may also be a blessing. ( Tom Utter from Lincolnland Economic Development Corporation) noted that given the labor shortage in the area, it could be beneficial to have economic development that wouldn’t directly compete with more labor-intensive projects.”

How would you like living in a nice home that was once surrounded by beautiful crop lands where the colors and view changed with the seasons, then everything around you changed so that nothing you get to see out your window is steel and glass.

Also, how would your feel if you discovered that if a fire was next door to you, the fire department would NOT attempt to put it out?
That comment from Tom Utter was published in a news report about the construction of the Troy Indiana Solar Project.

Spencer County Indiana is Dying

August 26, 2020

One of the first things I learned as a business man is that you have to grow your customer base every year, or you will die.

So why is Spencer County dying? Their population has decreased 9 out of the last 10 years, while Dubois and Warrick counties have been growing.

Who is responsible for this decline in population?

Could it be the elected officials on a local level that seem to be quite busy working on some type of Spencer County Board or Committee that votes to decide what businesses are encouraged to move into the area, while at the same time working with LEDC, inviting these multi-million dollar corporations to move here and make massive changes to the county?

Maybe they need to make a choice. Do they want to protect and take care of their residents, or do they want to make big business and big tax revenue their top priority.

Let’s take a look at Spencer county. Years have been spent, trying to entice multi-million dollar corporations such as fertilizer plants, coal to diesel plants and solar farms, to move into the county, some of which have raised the ire of local citizens due to toxic waste and air pollution, while others bring fire risks and other types of potential problems.

What good is it to get the money, without jobs. In the Troy solar development, you have one or two residents that will become millionaires, although the money may have to be paid to their estate, due to age and health.

Who profits from 1 or 2 families getting large sums of money? Yes the state will get a nice chunk by possibly moving them into a higher tax bracket. And yes, the county tax also means the local government gets a share of that money.

There may also be a few local business that will make extra sales for the first 3 or 4 months, while construction is going on, but at what cost does all this come.

But this land is going to be effected for 20 to 50 years. The neighbors homes HAVE lost value. There are also some neighbors that have and will continue to have mental and emotional reactions to the construction, noise and seclusion by having tall fences blocking the view of what was once open fields of crops.

We also have to think about all of the jobs that were lost. When 1,000 acres of land is farmed, you have tractors bought and/or repaired. You have diesel fuel and oil used. You have implements bought and/or repaired. Trucks have to be bought or repaired and filled with diesel and oil. You have road tax on the fuel used when the crops are transported. You have seed used, crops harvested, dried, delivered and sold. Then you have the wages for all of those workers that has now vanished.

So, what is the net gain and is it worth it to make 2 families rich and dozens of families loose part of the dreams they once had when they originally bought the land and/or homes they currently live in? But then some government and private enterprise officials don’t care about the “little people”. Personally I was shocked to read the following quote from a newspaper article.

On 9/21/17, Tom Utter from LEDC, an organization that is “supposed” to be inviting businesses into the county, was speaking about the Troy Solar Farms when he stated,

“ While the project would yield no major job opportunities, that may also be a blessing. He noted that given the labor shortage in the area, it could be beneficial to have economic development that wouldn’t directly compete with more labor-intensive projects.”

I guess I must have a bit of a different mentality, because in my business experience, I learned early on that in certain types of business, 10% of your employees will accomplish 90% of your workload. That is why when I was looking for a location to use for an, “employee heavy” type business, such as in the service industry or retail, I wanted to find an area where the locals wanted and needed jobs. So, when it comes to helping Spencer County grow, my first question is, where are the small mom and pop businesses? There is a great 4-lane highway running through Spencer County, so why don’t we have retail businesses invited to build businesses along the 4-lane.

As a stock investor, I have enjoyed some nice profits while watching Dollar General and Casey’s General Stores grow over the years. It seems they are always looking to fill a niche where they can build new retail locations such as the location at the intersection of US 231 and Indiana 70 by Chrisney. If any organization or board from Spencer County invited them into the area, I would applaud them for such great foresight and if they didn’t, I would encourage them to look for other small retail establishments to garner.

US 231 would also be a great location for “warehouses”. Again, my business experience taught me to look at a radius and distances to metropolitan areas. I have not looked at the stats recently, but at one time Memphis, TN, was a growing area for warehousing, due to their centralized location between Dallas, Detroit and Orlando. It was because of the central location that I located an office for one of my companies. So why not look at a map, find a major city that is located around 500 to 600 miles away, then draw a radius with I-64 and US 231 as your center, then try to invite transportation companies to build local warehouses. Those types of businesses will offer local jobs, in a non-toxic environment, unless they are flammable. If I was 10 years younger and a bit healthier, I would look into building a few new businesses here myself, because it is a great location.

The biggest drawback I see to attracting and keeping new residents in the area, is the lack of new blood and new ideas. When the same people have been making the same decisions for years and years with no new positive ideas, it is time for something or someone to change.

Yet for some reason, “some” Spencer County individuals seems more interested in sitting on local boards dictating fines for individuals that don’t have their grass mowed, in spite of being in the hospital or a nursing home.

There are also board members that have people driving around looking for cars parked on private property, without license plates on them, so the owners can be forced to register the cars or fine them and have the cars towed away.

One would expect this type of bureaucracy in a metropolitan city, but many small towns of the past used to care about their neighbors and help each other, instead of simply trying to see how many fines they can come up with, in order to raise salaries for the county officials.

So, maybe Spencer County needs individuals in charge that actually care more about people, jobs and helping others, than they do about money.

My final thought here is a rule that has served me well over the years.

Always put peoples needs ahead of money.

Treat the people right.

Care about them and take care of them.

Care about their happiness and the money will come later.

This comes from a concerned citizen, home owner, tax payer and voter that may be moving OUT of Spencer County if things don’t change.

BTW, speaking of Lincolnland Economic Development CORPORATION, I noticed that according to their website, one of their BOARD members "Tom Brown" has political signs in quite a few yards, for election as the County Commissioner. While I am a Republican voter and donor, I have yet to find anything worthwhile that Tom has done to help fight against this invasion of solar farms taking away thousands of good crop land and many local farming related jobs, in Spencer County.