Huntington County, Indiana

Economic Development (HCUED), who are contracted by Huntington County to provide services many of the businesses need for startup, expansion, relocation, incentives, and workforce development. A big factor for the county’s different boards is collaborating with other counties. Over the years there have been several successful collaborations, the first one happening in Markle, a town divided by county lines between Huntington and Wells Counties. The town received its first industrial park 13 years ago with help from HCUED. This led to larger companies wanting to establish production sites, like Novae, a trailer manufacturer, which in turn led to more interest and Dayton Freight moving into the industrial park. With more work and people moving to the area, HCUED took the risk and installed new town infrastructure, to induce these companies to stay in the area. But for one large project, Huntington County needed to collaborate. “We did something no one in northeast Indiana has ever done. We crossed the county line and went to the Wells County Commissioners,” recounts Wall. Huntington County needed to erect a water tower for their side of Markle because of the growth in population. With help from the Wells County Commissioners, they were able to put in the capital to build a new water tower. With this expansion and willingness to collaborate, another opportunity arose from the larger Allen County. General Motors (GM) came to Allen County with a proposal of expanding operations. But for this to take place they needed to have a new roadway, now known as the 900 North, so a Northeast Regional Partnership was created. Because of this massive collaborative effort between Allen and Huntington Counties, they were able to pool together economic resources and engineering for roads, bridges, and railways. But there was still a shortfall in capital, which meant as a team they approached the HUNT INGTON COUNTY , INDI ANA State of Indiana for help. By doing the groundwork correctly, they were able to fully fund the project via the state. “Because we had all the engineering and due diligence completed, we got $30 million from the state to do a county road,” says Wall. Once the funding was secured, GM announced they would be doubling the size of their initial plans. In the northeastern part of Indiana there are 11 counties. The mayors and commissioners from all these areas meet up once a month to share information about developments and opportunities. The economic development