"This was a bean field two years ago"

Up Highway 231 about an hour's drive from Owensboro into southern Indiana lies the small community known simply as Crane. It's anything but simple. Since 1941 when it was first established, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division has grown into the third largest naval installation in the world by geographic area and employs about 5,000 people. It sits mainly in Martin County but also lies in portions of Lawrence and Greene counties.

Last week, I joined a group advocating the four-laning of U.S. 231 north to Crane for a tour of the new Westgate technology park that sits just outside the Crane installation. "This was a bean field two years ago," said our tour guide, Mike Burch, CEO of the Crane Federal Credit Union, which has a spectacular new facility in the park. That's Mike in the dark suit talking to us outside the SAIC building, one of the jewels of the park, in the photo.

Crane, we were told, was originally expected to lose about 700 jobs when the infamous BRACC report came out in 2005. Ironically, jobs have grown instead and, today, private contractors that work with Crane and occupy the tech park employ about 750 people. We toured a building occupied by SAIC—a building with different levels of top secret security. SAIC's website says it's a "scientific, engineering and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation, and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure and health." Whatever that means, it's mighty impressive. SAIC also has operations in the nearby small towns of Bloomfield, Bedford and Odon as well as Indianapolis. We were told the company plans to build another facility next to its current one in the Crane tech park.

Those of us on the tour came away surprised at the irony of Crane. Here's a community in the middle of rural southern Indiana where the average non-military worker is making $57,000 per year. Ten-percent of SAIC's employees drive 70 miles one way from Indianapolis every day. At least one drives from Terre Haute. It's a community that's thriving thanks to military needs and advanced technology that helps keep our country safe. We were told Crane has plans to become a "center of excellence" for alternative energy in the future.

That will certainly lead to more private jobs—many of them in the middle of a technology park that was a bean field two years ago.

I-69: The Future is Now

This Thursday, the Chamber of Commerce of Southwestern Indiana will host its annual dinner with John Calipari, UK basketball coach, serving as keynote speaker. He will obviously be the big story, but Interstate 69 will also take center stage with Hoosier Voices for I-69 and 24 chambers of commerce in Kentucky unveiling a new exhibit to promote the long-awaited highway that includes a new Ohio River bridge between the two states.

The cover story in Sunday's Courier-Press highlights I-69 progress in both Indiana and Kentucky and the ongoing effort north of the river to build the new-terrain route while also saving money to extend it as far north as possible with limited funds. It's a well-written story by C-P Indy bureau writer Eric Bradner.

In Kentucky, highway funds are much more limited and I-69 has fierce competition including new Ohio River bridges in Louisville, a new bridge in northern Kentucky and I-66. The chambers of commerce have picked up the torch for the project to keep its importance in front of state lawmakers, state transportation cabinet staffers and Kentucky's D.C. delegation. Bradner's story did not mention Governor Beshear's recent appointment of former highway engineer Ted Merryman as I-69 project manager.

Despite its long, winding journey, I-69 is moving forward. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is its biggest fan. Kentucky now has a funding mechanism to help fund and toll a new Ohio River bridge. Governor Beshear grew up in Hopkins County near the corridor and that can't hurt either. Indeed, the future for I-69 is now.

Extreme Everything this Week

It's one of those weeks in Owensboro-Daviess County that don't happen enough. Thousands of people and businesses have rallied around Thompson Homes to build the Mattingly family their dream courtesy of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. This very deserving family will return from the Bahamas on Saturday to see their new home nestled in the rolling hills of eastern Daviess County.

Today, Governor Beshear visited the homebuilding site and then broke ground for the long-awaited U.S. 60 bypass extension at Meadow Lands School in front of hundreds of school children and community leaders. I was humbled to be included in the group that turned those first shovels of ceremonial dirt for a project that—combined with the new U.S. 231 in Spencer Co. IN, the Natcher Bridge and the Natcher Parkway—will become part of a new four-lane corridor from I-64 to I-65.

This evening, Pam and I returned to the Extreme Home site to take in what is truly an historic occasion. It's inspiring to see so many people work side-by-side to accomplish this big goal. It's rewarding to see rival businesses become partners on a community team for a week. Those that have come by to watch have smiles on their faces as they admire the collective spirit and hope to catch a glimpse of one of the show's stars.

On our drive home Pam said, "Did you notice how everyone was so friendly?" I had noticed it; everyone there knows they're a small part of something very special. Indeed, a good week for Owensboro-Daviess County.

The original "social media"

Here Comes Everybody is among the handful of social media books that I'm currently reading to bring myself up to speed on what tools like Facebook, Twitter and others mean to the landscape today. While some still shun these technologies, the growing numbers who are using them are doing some very creative things to reach out to their "friends" and build connections and followers. Likewise, chambers of commerce everywhere are tussling with social media and know they can't afford to ignore these new ways for people to connect without a formal organization.

As we at the Greater Owensboro Chamber released our annual legislative and local issues survey this past Friday, I couldn't help but smile thinking at how online surveys could be considered "old school" these days. We've done our survey for the past six years to gather input from our members, and we've always had at least a 20% response rate, which is good. We consider the collective thoughts of our members to be very important leading into the Kentucky General Assembly and the myriad issues that inevitably pop up along the way.

Yes, the new social media tools offer the ability for anyone to provide input. Everybody can be a writer, a blogger, post their thoughts and feelings. We've been doing that via online surveys well before Facebook and Twitter were conceived. That makes me smile too.