Published: May 13, 2008 11:35 am            

MARK BENNETT: Community shouldn't take Pfizer departure in stride

TERRE HAUTE — The news this morning that Pfizer Inc. will leave Vigo County next year wasn't a total shock. It's the other shoe dropping, after the pharmaceutical giant ended its once-heralded Exubera production at the local plant in 2007.

But this loss of the final 140 jobs at the facility should spur a community-wide response unlike any in our history. A total of 800 jobs, the biotech gems that cities long to attract, are not the only subtraction from the Terre Haute area. The people who worked in those positions and their families actively fueled this economy, led youth sports programs and arts groups, and donated to charities.

Places that have revitalized after losing cornerstone industries did so after extensive, honest soul-searching. Peoria, Ill., recovered after Caterpillar's operations there transformed from production to a corporate headquarters. Akron, Ohio, restructured its local economy when the tiremakers departed.

Terre Haute has smart, active people constantly working to attract new employers to the city, such as veteran economic developer Steve Witt, president of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp. But the community leaders need to take a deep look at what this city offers, and doesn't offer, to outside businesses and their prospective employees. Trumpeting what Terre Haute has is noble and necessary, but it is not enough.

Residents here in need of jobs and opportunities are collectively hoping and asking companies elsewhere to take a bold leap by choosing to invest and build in Terre Haute. Likewise, this community needs to show those inquiring businesses that it is willing to take a bold leap by enhancing its existing amenities and adding new ones.

In the past seven years, more than 1,600 people have moved out of the Terre Haute metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Since just 1990, Vigo County has fallen from being Indiana's 14th largest county to 17th in 2007.

Obviously, maintaining the status quo is not enough.

        

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