Blackford County Receives RLF Funding

By Cynthia Payne
NT Editor/Publisher
newstimes@comcast.net

Published: Friday, March 12, 2010 6:09 AM CST

Blackford County got some encouraging advice from an expert on what it’s doing right to attract new business and where it needs to continue to grow.

Leslie Wagner, director of project management and development with Ginovus, was the guest speaker for the Blackford County Economic Development Corp. (BCEDC) annual dinner Tuesday evening, March 9.

“I took some very positive things away from the presentation,” said Rob Cleveland, executive director of the BCEDC.

Wagner emphasized the advantage of having sites already prepared for new companies looking to locate here. “She was big on shovel-ready sites and we have two,” noted Cleveland. Both Montpelier and Hartford City industrial parks have sites certified by the state as shovel ready.

She also noted, several times, the importance of having a good website. “Site consultants need immediate access to information. Yesterday, for example, I could not find who to call on a website, so I moved on,” Wagner said.

“Websites should be continuously updated with fresh data, demographics, contacts and news,” she said.

Blackford County’s website does those things, she noted. “I think you have an excellent website,” she said.

Cleveland added, “We’re very proud of our website and we try to update it regularly.”

Still, it could be better, Cleveland said. “The key is getting the information out there. What we’re told is 70 percent of the work is done before the economic development people are notified. There are too many other places that are just as eligible (for site locations),” he explained.

One way to improve the website is to increase the number or people that see it. That’s called “search engine optimization,” and it’s done by improving the “key words” and the number of links back to the Blackford County site.

Cleveland is one of the advantages Wagner told the group of about 60 community members that Blackford County possesses. When she opened her remarks at the dinner, Wagner noted, “You are fortunate to have Rob (Cleveland). He is a professional.”

See the rest of the story in the Friday, March 12 print edition of the News Times