OrthoWorx Executive Director Brad Bishop has been elected to the board of the Northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority, recently formed to compete for state funding for major regional projects.
Bishop was elected during a June 24 caucus meeting of mayors and county commissioners of the 16 towns and 11 counties in the NIRDA. He was chosen from among the initial 22 candidates nominated for the board, alongside Andrew Briggs of Bank of Geneva, Gene Donaghy of Northeastern REMC, Bob Marshall of Campbell & Fetter Bank and Jeff Turner of Metal Technologies.
The board will hold its organizational meeting next week, Bishop said, and will soon be involved in weighing proposals for attraction and retention projects to be proposed to the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Two of the 10 RDAs in the state will each receive a matching grant of $42 million to develop their proposed projects under the Regional Cities Initiative.
Bishop said the goal is for the member cities and counties to come together and pick the projects that provide the greatest benefit to the region in terms of attracting people and improving quality of life. He listed the expansion and development underway for the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts as an example of such projects.
“I think it’s going to be interesting and exciting for the region. With 11 counties we’re the biggest in the state, so it will be interesting to see how we fare against the others in the state,” Bishop said. “I’m sure there are a lot of great projects out there, it’s sure to be competitive.”
(Story By The Times Union)
