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He’s three weeks into his new job and Wells County Economic Development Director Chad Kline has hit the ground running.

“It’s been walk in the door and go,” he said, sitting in his office earlier this week. “It hasn’t been walk in the door and there’s a yellow light for a little while. It’s been green light the whole time, which is good. I work well under deadlines.”

Kline worked in the newspaper industry for 18 years and is a self-proclaimed workaholic who likes to be doing something all the time. He has served as a county commissioner in Noble County (he currently lives in Kendallville) and was the president of the Noble Plan Commission.

When he became commissioner Jan. 1, 2013, he said he wanted to sit on two boards: Economic development and planning. He feels like there is no better way to learn about the community than serving on those boards.

Those memberships spawned an interest in workforce development and business attraction, including bringing people to the community. People improve the quality of life, Kline said, and investments fund a better quality of life.

“That’s one of the things I really saw in Noble. There was a big desire for people to want to improve the community and improve the county, and I’ve really seen that in my short time here (too),” he said.

He attended a conference at Ball State University last week that touched on various areas of economic development, from managing the organization and financing to business retention and attraction. In the near future, he hopes to discuss not only what he learned but how to implement some changes with the board, he said.

But he’s already made some adjustments in his short time in the position.

One of the first tasks Kline said he did was to review the bylaws and the membership make-up of the board, and found some things to change.

“Confidentiality was expressed, never written,” he said. “We now have signed confidentially agreements by all of the board members.”

Liability is a serious concern, he explained, and they don’t want to take that chance.

He’s also changed the membership of the board. A vacant seat held in the past by a representative of the real estate realm is now made to be filled by someone specifically from the manufacturing industry.

“I felt that that’s really the advice that the board needs more than anything is to have somebody from manufacturing,” he said. “Ultimately this department, economic development, deals more with manufacturing than any other business, I think, especially enticing businesses.”

One of the last things former economic development director Tim Ehlerding did, Kline said, was to finish the five-year strategic plan. Kline said he wants to work with the plan before determining if it needs modified. The goal is evaluate it at the end of 2016 through surveys and decide if it can and should be followed.

Furthermore, he wants to collect as much data as possible from businesses.

“The information that they provide us is vital in how we provide them services,” he said.

A survey they are currently working on will ask businesses what training they need, or what skills are lacking in potential employees, so that those needs can be addressed.

Due to the low unemployment rate in the county, Kline wants to address increasing pay of existing jobs.

“I think my goal is to really look at increasing per capita income and start providing training, providing skills, that will increase wages,” he said. “We may have some people that are driving for those higher wages. Maybe we can start keeping them here, closer to town, if we can start providing the training to build those people’s skills.”

He also wants to look at how the organization is funded.

“Right now, we are very dependent – heavily – on CEDIT dollars and I hope that we can start to bring that mix more to less CEDIT and more private contributions, but I think that starts a lot with relationships,” he said. “It’s my job to make companies and to make businesses feel that this is worth investing in, because this is an investment. They’re putting money into this organization as an investment, and so I need to show them that we’re worth investing in. That’s my major goal.”

He encourages business leaders to reach out to him if they need anything or to visit. Ultimately, it isn’t about him, he said – it’s about the county and the bigger picture.

“I just hope I can represent Wells County,” he said, “and represent it well.”

Article by Jessica Williams, Courtesy of the News-Banner