Five southern Indiana counties are using findings from the Indiana First Quality of Life Economic Impact Analysis to explore opportunities for essential services and quality-of-life amenities.
The report funded by the Community Foundation Alliance and Harrison County Community Foundation focuses on the Indiana First READI Region of Knox, Perry, Pike, Spencer and Harrison counties.
“We brought together people from the communities to ask them, ‘What do you stay in the community for? And what do you routinely need to go outside of your county for?’” said Jill Carpenter, CFA’s CEO.
The study assembled by Thomas P. Miller and Associates assessed sectors for economic growth potential in the region, including health care services, basic necessities, professional services, entertainment and dining and culture and recreation.
“What this study does is it gives [these counties] a roadmap of the types of organizations they need to attract, and then they can work with that entrepreneur to provide the infrastructure and the things that are needed for them to locate in their community,” Carpenter said.
Taking inventory
Carpenter said CFA and HCCF discussed several issues with the Indiana First READI Region’s steering committee before narrowing down topics for the study.
“However, there was considerable uncertainty with the committee understanding what the community’s essential services inventory and needs were in each of the communities. They knew that they needed to do some quality of place work, and they needed to do some downtown revitalization, but they weren’t sure what each of the communities needed,” she said.
The group decided the report should focus on taking stock of present services to identify gaps for growth.
“We kept coming back to this idea of getting a better assessment or understanding of where our region stands in terms of essential services. And that runs the spectrum from things like professional things like the number of CPA firms or attorneys or specialists in the medical field to veterinarians, retail, entertainment,” said Chris Pfaff, CEO of Knox County Indiana Economic Development.
The goal was for each county to share data from the regional report with government and economic development officials in the community to discuss investment opportunities.
“What kind of infrastructure needed to be put in place? If they were doing downtown or any kind of revitalization, what kind of businesses were they trying to attract to come to the community, and how could they provide some incentives?” Carpenter said.
Missing goods, services
To gather information for the Indiana First report, organizers used public stakeholder meetings, resident surveys and economic data analysis. Regional participants were asked what goods and services were in their county, what goods and services they had to travel for and what goods and services they wished were more readily available.
For health care services, Carpenter said the study revealed many residents seek urgent and emergency care away from home.
“Some other health care essentials [that were needed] would be specialists like allergists, cardiologists, endocrinology and ophthalmology, those types of things. And every county pretty much said mental health services,” she said. “Some don’t have much in the way of [obstetrics] or orthodontics. Even pharmacy, they have limited pharmacy.”
Basic necessities such as auto dealerships, clothing stores and food access were found to be lacking in these counties.
“Some people, depending on where they lived in the community, would have to drive 20, 30 minutes to get to a full-service grocery,” said Carpenter.
Appliance repair technicians, attorneys and accountants were among the sought-after professional services in the region.
“We keep going back to this one example in Perry County, where there’s little to no veterinary services. You would think in a rural community, especially with the farming community, that’s something that you might take for granted. For whatever reason, the market is not keeping pace with that need,” Pfaff said.
For entertainment and dining, residents mentioned the need for movie theaters and restaurants, such as Chick-fil-A.
“Healthy food options. That was the other thing. They have restaurants, but a lot of them are fast food,” said Carpenter.
Live music, outdoor sports and splash pads were popular requests for culture and recreation amenities.
“In Knox County, there are limited options when it comes to live music. So what you’ll find is that on an annual basis, there’s probably a market for more than a million dollars worth of spending that people are going to other communities to find,” Pfaff said.
Economic opportunities
To further explore the area’s inventory of services, the report analyzed spending on goods and services within and outside of the Indiana First READI Region.
“Portfolio management and investment advice. About $12.5 million was spent in the region … which is only about 7.6% of the total. Which means $152 million was spent out of the region. That’s some leakage of economic opportunity that could be captured if they could attract some financial planners and managers,” said Carpenter.
Pfaff said the spending analysis also identified goods and services that may not be needed in these counties. For example, 99% of beauty salon spending took place within Knox County, while 17% of barber shop spending happened within the community.
“If I were an entrepreneur thinking about starting a salon, I might think twice because there’s such a saturation of that particular thing. Now, barber shops, on the other hand, we only have a couple,” Pfaff said.
Pfaff’s goal is to share the study as widely as possible and work to fill the essential services and quality-of-life amenities gaps over the coming years.
“I specifically have an interest in getting this [report] in the hands of entrepreneurs who may be thinking about starting a company and don’t necessarily have their mindset on any given thing,” he said.