Community Impact | Sarah Pennington & Jim McLane

What does it take to bring a community vision to life? In this episode of Impact: The Chamber Podcast, we visit Cambridge City to sit down with Sarah Pennington and Jim McLane, two community leaders who have played a key role in shaping the town's future.

Filmed on location at the new Creitz Park Pavilion, we discuss the vision, collaboration, and persistence that made the project a reality, along with the community partnerships that helped move it from idea to completion. The conversation also explores Cambridge City's transition from a traditional Main Street organization and Chamber of Commerce to the newly formed Western Wayne Alliance, and what that change means for the future of economic and community development in Western Wayne County.

From community leadership to revitalization and regional collaboration, this episode offers an inside look at the people and partnerships working to make Western Wayne County an even stronger place to live, work, and visit.

Subscribe to catch new episodes each month!

Learn more about the Chamber: https://www.wcareachamber.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to another episode of the Wayne County Area Chamber podcast, Impact, and we are here on the western side of our county this month in the beautiful Kreitz Park Pavilion, and we're joined by two amazing leaders here in Cambridge City. Jim McLean, who serves on Cambridge City Council and former business owner, investor, all of the things. And then Sarah Pennington from McGowan Insurance, who has been a longtime uh business leader here in the community. And then, of course, Lynette Davis, our director of events. So thank you all for joining us today. Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us. Yeah. I know. But you know what? There's a beautiful breeze going on, and the sun is shining, and I just can't get mad about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

That breeze always blows in Cambridge City.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

That's awesome. Well, um, this pavilion is brand new, and we got to come over and celebrate with you all that cut the ribbon recently. But tell us a little bit about this space, how it came about, and where you're headed.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Well, it really came about uh you know, two, three years ago when they started the help, the Hoosier Enduring uh legacy program. So um it became a part of that program when uh you know they started brainstorming on where they want to spend their money and such, and you know, they luckily you know, we were fortunate the county decided, you know, they were gonna put money in all the towns that participated. So we were very fortunate that we already had this dream that we could put forward as as a project, and it got uh put in, and we ended up with an economic development block grant through the HELP uh and Okra. And so that was a big portion of $450,000. And then, of course, we had our own ARPA money we put into it that was part of our uh the town's uh uh input, and then there was money from Sugar Creek and the actually Wayne County Tourism uh all contributed. So, all told we ended up with about $650,000, and that was enough to put this pavilion in, put sidewalk down Green Street, and uh do a little bit of work over here, and that was it. After that, uh I was approached by the Wayne County Foundation, and they said, hey, we're going after this Lily gift gift Hift H, I think. Yeah, there's been several of those and uh they want to make the finished the parts of this uh as part of that project, and so that of course they were awarded that, and we ended up with enough money to finish it. And you see what we have now. We were able to buy the furniture, we were able to put finish all the concrete, and uh we actually have a sound system that we can put up now, and we have a signage, and it's just I couldn't be happier.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

It is lovely, it's nice, and not that you didn't have a gathering space before, but to have an official gathering space that will accommodate a community is incredible.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

In a finished space.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

I mean, I think that's you know, before it was awesome, and we had a nice green open area, and we had the ability to do things, but now it feels like this is what the space was for. It's more inviting, it has more amenities that we're able to offer.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

So it was actually designed to be more than just a stage, it was designed to be a gathering space. That's why you don't see this is not raised here because you know it can be used for other things, but just this besides just a stage, and you know, I guess we might mention that there were a couple local folks that got highly involved. Cecil Penlin, who is a local person, works for um RAA uh architects, and he contributed his time free of charge for us.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

And uh uh Brianna Wetzel.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Brianna Wetzel is the other uh architect that uh did the architecture of that actual pavilion itself. So we're very lucky, fortunate to have local people that were able to contribute.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

You know, I think as um if you're not involved in commercial spaces, 650,000 might feel like it will go so far. And then you start venturing into commercial spaces that are gonna get different types of use, um, be in the weather, be accessible, you know, all of the things that come along with that, and then utilities and everything it doesn't go nearly as far as what people think it will.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

It it really doesn't, and you know, plus since it's a public project too, you know, there's other restrictions we have to go through and ends up costing a little bit more. So, you know, it ended up being just under a million dollar project. So it was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

You know, you said something in the beginning that I think is really key. You said we had a dream of this, and I think sometimes we fail to allow ourselves to dream of something bigger than what we think is possible. And without that vision of what could be, all of these people wouldn't have come together to say, I want to be a part of that, I want to be a part of that, and you couldn't do it with just one of those funding streams.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

And the participation of the county, you know, the county folks as well. You know, I can't say enough that Cambridge City, I think in recent years, has gotten more involved with county folks, and it's paid off for us, you know, because you got to have those relationships and you have to have, you know, the plans, you have to know what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Right. So, Sarah, you have been involved in the community through the Cambridge City Chamber of Commerce and both of you with Main Street, and a lot of things have been happening over the years. I mean, Canal Days has been going on forever and wonderful, but recently you all have have decided to collaborate. Talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah, so when we took a look at the boards, two separate boards, there were at least half of us that were on both boards, right? We all know how it goes with these sorts of things, right? So in my mind, I was just at a point of like, well, I would really like to not have the same conversations, yeah, budgets, all of those things, right? So we were hopefully are going to be stronger together now. So we have come together to form the Western Wayne Alliance group, and we're pretty excited about that just because I think we can have more impact. I think we can get more participation from our volunteers. Right. As we all know, that's a big part of how we make things happen, right? Is the additional volunteers just not on the boards. And I think working together, that will be super helpful. Um, budgets being separate were always difficult. We were asking each other anyway, like, hey, can you pay for half the billboards out at 70? And can you pay for half of this? And can you pay for some of the sound? So those conversations were already happening. It just felt more natural that we would do it all together. So we are excited. We've had a lot of folks show up at the last meeting. Speaking of canal days, this is a good time to announce the date. So um the date is the second weekend in September. I don't know what date that is exactly. It will be here before we know it. So the big news, however, is with Indot and the construction going on. We are not allowed to have the festival on 40. So that's caused a lot of conversation. And because to your point, it's been happening for forever, Melissa, and it's always been on 40. So it will be back here behind us. Um, we're working really hard to figure out you know a path to downtown still, so that folks please still visit our main street um shops and restaurants. But a lot of the festivities will be happening right here behind us in this area. So that's kind of the big news for Canal Days this year. We hope it goes well. We hope everyone still comes and attends and enjoys it with us. But it will look a little different this year. Hopefully better.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

And how amazing is it that this is here and and ready and equipped to do all the things. Yep. And timing, I assume, like music, like you always do, you know, all of this.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

Sure, as an addition to the canal days, there will be a concert here on Saturday night. Yes. So the long shots, a local band will be here playing uh Saturday night. So that's that's one addition that makes this nice to be able to do this.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Our first official concert of the season, we think we were having a hard time counting, right, Jim? I think we had maybe 750 folks here. So my thing. This was full, that area out there was full, that's um we had vendors over here, so we'll have food vendors and we just started RSO out here as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

RSO last two weekends ago, maybe now.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yeah. We missed that because we were we were on the chamber trip at Greece. I was excited to see that that came out.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

It went really well to RSO here, and it was I hope they come back because it was a nice concert.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Good. And you know, just bringing different groups of people like that to the community is very important for everyone. I think um hopefully we can uh offer activities and events that appeal to different sort of folks as well. I think that's super important for us.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

We'll just do a little tease. There there is a potential of a new uh event that will happen sometime in September if those things are being finalized after Canal Days. So keep your ear to the graphics. We can help spread the word too. So we definitely let you know on that uh, but uh it's looks like that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

That's wonderful. It's nice to have different one thing I love about going around our county in the different places is I feel like every community has its own personality, and you get a taste of something just a little bit different depending on where you go. And if you haven't been out here to Cambridge in a while, or you think, oh my gosh, it's on the other side of the county, um it's it's not that far, folks, and it's totally worth it. Drive over here more often, visit the storefronts, visit the restaurants, um stop in the park, come to the events, it's so worth it. And the people here are incredibly welcoming. You won't be sorry you did it. So I want to um give just a little moment. Do we have Lynette's list this time? I have Lynette's list. Okay, so Lynette always comes up with here's things happening around here, and I'm gonna save a couple minutes for her.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

I appreciate that. Well, chamber wise, we have two events um that uh will have a very big impact. And there are two events that our chamber members really, really need to be at. Um The first one is um one of the events in our business leaders series that we do with Schaefer Leadership Academy. We do quarterly events, they're always wonderful. Um this one we have coming up in in uh towards the end of July is on secession planning for small businesses. So speaking of Cambridge City and small towns and and small businesses there, what is the plan? Some people want to retire and pass off their business to somebody else, but they don't have that next person to take it over. Um even if they're not uh planning on retiring in the next two to three years, you know, maybe it's a 10-year-away type of goal. Starting to plan those and put those things into place now are are vital. And so we are going to have a workshop on that.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Um and even if even if it's a business that has 50 people, you still need a secession plan so that you know who who you're training up to be your next leaders.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So absolutely. So that will be on July 28th, uh, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Um it has a lunch included with it. There is a charge, $25 if you are a member of the Wayne County Area Chamber, and $35 if you are a future member of the Wayne County Chamber. Go ahead and jump on our website and sign up for that. The website is WCAreaCamber.org. The other event that we have coming up that would be very vital for many of our chamber member businesses and our educators around the county to attend is part of our legislative series. And we will have Dr. Katie Jenner, uh, who is the Indiana Department of Education of Education Secretary. Secretary, yes. Um I was afraid I was gonna mess that up. That's a long title. It is a long title. So the Indiana Secretary of Education, Dr. Katie Jenner, she will be coming over to visit visit us in Wayne County and uh present at our breakfast event. That will be on Friday, August 14th, 8 a.m. to 9 30 a.m. And uh we have that at Forest Hills. There is a ticket fee for that one, also $35, with breakfast included, and she's going to be talking about work-based learning, which is a huge topic across Indiana right now. And then also just additional things that came out of this last legislative session that have to deal with education. Very important topic. She's a wonderful speaker, so we're very excited to have her over in Wayne County and have her join us. Can I bring in special delivery? We have to. We do have a delivery. So we cannot come to Cambridge City without one of my favorite things here in Cambridge City, and that is Chicago's pizza. Thank you, delivery, delivery lady. Alexis, we pay her the big bucks for delivery. So um, yes, I love their pizza. I really love their breadsticks. Those are my favorite breadsticks in the county, don't tell anybody else. But we had to have some of our Chicago's pizza. So, would anybody like a piece of Chicago's pizza? Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Absolutely. If you haven't had Chicago's pizza yet, again, another reason to run over here and try it. Help yourself, Jim.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

Here, I'll take this one. Oh, perfect. Makes it easy.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Perfect. Well, thank you for joining us for another episode of Chamber Impact. And if you haven't already followed us, please do like it, share it. Um, help us spread the word about the great things happening in Wayne County. And we look forward to seeing you at the next thing.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Cheers. Cheers.