Southern Indiana Business Report

ENGLISH – Crawford County has welcomed its first mover through the Choose Southern Indiana remote worker program.

Kimberly Mallory moved from Kentucky after purchasing a parcel of land – the former Red Hill Fiber & Co. alpaca farm – in Crawford County. 

Mallory, who works for the University of Louisville, applied for an incentive and was approved by Choose Southern Indiana, however, Crawford County wasn’t a participant in the remote worker program. 

Jesse Belcher, executive director of Crawford County’s local economic development organization, said the county previously wasn’t a participant in the remote worker program because the county didn’t have the fiber network that a remote worker would need. 

With recent upgrades to connectivity in Crawford County, that is changing. 

“Now with the success of this person moving here, we don’t see any reason not to participate in the Choose Southern Indiana remote worker program at this point,” Belcher said. “If someone is interested, we will steer them to areas where we do have fiber.”

Fiber is expanding in Crawford County. Dubois Rural Electric is replacing old utility poles and Orange County Fiber is going to attach to the new poles. 

“In the next year, a significant portion of the western part of the county will be covered,” he said. 

Orange County hires a physician

Orange County also welcomed a new resident as part of its partnership with Choose Southern Indiana.

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Dr. Ashley McCurry received an incentive via the workforce attraction program. McCurry is a physician at Southern Indiana Community Health Care and will reside in Paoli. 

SICHC’s Dr. Yolanda Yoder said being able to add a physician to the medical staff comes at a crucial time for SICHC.

“The addition of Dr. McCurry to our Paoli office is especially important for expanding our primary health and maternity care team in light of Ascension’s Bedford hospital closure at the end of 2022, when we stepped in to provide health care in our new SICHC Mitchell and Bedford offices,” Yoder said. “Those teams kept local pregnancy care going in Lawrence County.  Having Dr. McCurry join us in providing pregnancy and family medical care in Paoli, where patients transfer for their final weeks of pregnancy and delivery, helps preserve those needed services. That’s what we call health equity – where rural people don’t have to go without valuable health care just because they don’t live close to a city.”

Amid a national shortage of physicians, Yoder said it’s extremely difficult to find physicians willing to move to areas that don’t have the amenities of larger cities. 

“The work of Choose Southern Indiana in highlighting what we do have can be pivotal for helping health care professionals see all we offer.  Our rural areas have an abundance of vibrant, proactive citizens who love their community by engaging in innovative activities,” she said.

Farmer’s markets, the Lost River Co-op & Cafe in Paoli, community garden, youth mentoring, schools that take a trauma-informed approach to supporting youth, recovery services, and community health centers that integrate mental health and primary health care are examples of the caring community that exists, Yoder said. 

“When Choose Southern Indiana shines a spotlight on what is happening here and adds a financial incentive, we all gain when new members join the local team and add their unique, additional skills,” she said. 

McCurry is SICHC’s first physician hired via the Choose incentive. 

“We are grateful for this new program that enhances our community by attracting people with needed skills. We look forward to additional help in attracting future medical providers like Dr. McCurry to serve at any of our offices in Bedford, Mitchell, West Baden, English, Marengo, Paoli and Salem,” she said. 

Kristal Painter, program manager of Choose Southern Indiana, said Choose has brought in a number of workers in manufacturing and defense, but is also seeing workers in other professions applying.

“It is exciting to see other industries utilizing the Choose Southern Indiana program to recruit skilled professionals to our region,” Painter said. “Recently we’ve received applications for a pastor and a brewmaster and we are working with the employers to bring those people and their families into our community!  We encourage other industries or employers to reach out to us to see how they might use the program for recruitment.”

In Daviess County, Washington Community Schools has added four teachers to its faculty by using the Choose program. In February, three teachers, all from Ecuador, received incentives to move to Daviess County through the workforce attraction program.

Currently there are four programs for Choose Southern Indiana:  Remote Worker, Employer/Workforce Attraction, Defense Sector and Healthcare/Nursing.  Painter said she’s in the process of adding another program specifically geared toward recruiting teachers and nurses that are recent graduates from universities or colleges in Indiana as a way to retain graduates, this is in partnership with Indiana Destination Development Corporation.