Starke County Economic Development Director, Charles Weaver, met with many executives of the plants that are located in the Knox Industrial Park yesterday. Weaver talks about that meeting.
“The industries and companies that are located along County Road 300 East in Knox met to hear a presentation about the planned improvement of County Road 300 East, or Klockner Drive, by the engineers that are preparing those plans,” said Weaver.
Labor Day is coming this year on the heels of some promising news from the Starke County Economic Development Foundation Office. Executive Director Charles Weaver has had exciting announcements about Sabre and J.W. Hicks, Inc. in the past few weeks. Both announcements included promises of more jobs down the road.
Of course, the community is most anxious to hear about the Sysco project. That project has been hold for several years due to the economy. This summer has brought much speculation that something might be coming to the site near Hamlet.
Weaver, though, has not issued any information on the project except to say that he’s still very hopeful that it will become a reality. If the Sysco Distribution Plant would end up being built here in the not to distant future, it would be a real shot in the arm to a county that has been hovering around 10% unemployment for many months.
The new Consul General of Mexico visited Starke County this week. Eduardo Arnal, visited with Starke County Development Director Charles Weaver in his Knox office. The northern part of Indiana is under Arnal’s jurisdiction, and he was visiting several counties to offer the services of his office with any questions officials might need answered.
Arnal said sooner or later the United States needs to have immigration reform. He said, “It’s simple. The U.S. needs our workers, and right now the laws make it almost impossible to enter legally.”
Weaver said the Mexican population in Starke County is small, but thought the residents here would be surprised at how many are working in our factories.
“Starke County has an Hispanic population of about 3.3 percent,” explained Weaver. “80 percent of that population are of Mexican ancestry. There are a number of Mexican population working within some of the businesses in Starke County. The majority of those workers are working here from other counties and then they return home. So, what we’re going to see as far as a population shift, I have no idea.”
Rumors have floated around Starke County for the past few weeks that construction of the Sysco plant near Hamlet is about to become a reality. Starke County Economic Development Director, Charles Weaver, cautions that he has not received any information that supports those rumors.
