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Duke Energy grant will help Wickersham solve pleasant problem

Laura Sheets (third from left), area manager for Duke Energy, presents a $20,500 check to Greg Smitley (second from left), president of Huntington County United Economic Development (HCUED).
Laura Sheets (third from left), area manager for Duke Energy, presents a $20,500 check to Greg Smitley (second from left), president of Huntington County United Economic Development (HCUED). Photo by Cindy Klepper.

With the help of a grant from Duke Energy, Mark Wickersham hopes to get a jump start on solving a pleasant problem - a dearth of sites for new businesses.

Wickersham, executive director of Huntington County United Economic Development (HCUED), accepted a $20,500 grant from Duke Energy on Thursday, Jan. 27.

The grant is designed to help HCUED identify a potential site for a new industrial park within the Duke Energy service area. HCUED President Greg Smitley says the organization hopes to have an option on property for the new industrial park by the end of this calendar year.

The funds will pay for a land survey, Phase-One environmental study, wetlands delineation, and a geotechnical study of the site - all of which are necessary toward obtaining state or region "site ready" certification.

The approved certification expedites the location and permitting process for business development. Because site information is available before development, the potential risks of investing in and improving new land are reduced.

"Additional industrial sites are needed in the Huntington area," says Laura Sheets, area manager for Duke Energy Indiana's north area. "The program will help the area capitalize on potential manufacturing opportunities that will attract jobs."

Wickersham notes that seven formerly empty industrial buildings in and around Huntington - a total of more than 1.3 million square feet of industrial space - are now or soon will be occupied by new tenants.

While a strategic plan drawn up in 2007-08 identified the type of property that would be best for an industrial park - property with infrastructure in place and located near highway and rail transportation - it did not identify specific locations, Wickersham says.

"At the moment, we have a general idea of properties that would strategically fit," he says.

Identifying the site and completing studies necessary for the site ready" certification would cut six months off the time it takes to locate a business here, Wickersham says.

"Job creation and job growth is the engine that runs our local economy," Smitley says.

"This organization is served and funded by contributions," he added as he thanked Duke and other contributors to HCUED.

The grant is made possible through Duke Energy's Community Growth Partnership Grant Program and is aimed at generating new jobs and capital investment in Indiana. Since 2008, 27 grant recipients - all local or regional economic development organizations - have received more than $328,000 toward economic development projects.

Complete caption: Laura Sheets (third from left), area manager for Duke Energy, presents a $20,500 check to Greg Smitley (second from left), president of Huntington County United Economic Development (HCUED). With them are Jason Fields (left), an HCUED board member and president of Lime City Economic Development; and (fourth and fifth from left) Bill Petranoff, economic development regional manager for Duke Energy, and Mark Wickersham, HCUED’s executive director. The grant will be used to identify a new industrial park.