Starke County, Indiana

STARKE COUNTY , INDI ANA “Eight years ago, 95 percent of our roads were either gravel, chip seal, or cold mix asphalt - not sufficient for trucks. So, the commissioners decided to add truck routes – about 125 of our 700 miles of roads will be made into hot-mix, truck-sufficient roads to go into the industrial park. We have a plan starting around the industrial park and extending into the rest of the county. This will connect us to US 30. We’re relatively close to Chicago with good access through the interstate, so it’s important that our infrastructure is good for companies that want to locate here.” BVM: What projects are currently on the agenda in North Judson? Rowe: “This year we just finished $2 million in water projects, including a new well, a new generator, and a total rehab inside and out of both of our water tanks. One of them is right in the middle of town, so we made that a canvas for our hometown pride. At the same time, it allowed us to utilize both tanks to their fullest didn’t get the designation this time, we’re going to go for it again next year. The main thrust of the program would be to improve the quality of place and to better utilize our two great natural lakes. We’d also work on infrastructure and other development to stimulate the economy.” BVM: How up to date is the transportation infrastructure? Ritzler: “Ten years ago the county commissioners decided to significantly upgrade the transportation infrastructure for citizens of the county and to enhance economic development and make access to our industrial park much easier. At that time we were ranked 88th out of 92 in bridge deficiency of our 57 bridges. They were in poor condition; over 40 percent were deficient. The commissioners decided to implement a program to improve that, which we’ve been working on for the last eight years. We are now in the top eight to ten percent of counties in the state for bridge deficiency. We only have one deficient bridge now.