The growth of Warsaw, Kosciusko County and the companies within them may depend heavily on future improvements to transportation access.
During his comments Thursday at the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Dinner, Zimmer Biomet CEO Ivan Tornos spoke about the importance of the issues with U.S. 30 being addressed, as well as the Warsaw Municipal Airport. He even suggested a regional airport in Warsaw may be a good thing. Those are the two ways that companies get their products and their people in and out of the community.
Friday afternoon, after a Lakeland Christian Academy school assembly with elected officials, 2nd District U.S. Congressman Rudy Yakym responded to those comments.
“A part of my role, as someone that sits on the Transportation Infrastructure Committee, is exercising oversight over the Transportation Department in the executive branch,” he said. “And the discretionary grants in Indiana that they award from the federal level - Secretary (Pete) Buttigieg’s department, who by the way is a Hoosier - we are dead last. Indiana is dead last.”
Yakym said Indiana is dead last behind all the states, and even all the U.S. territories, when it comes to discretionary grants awarded on a per-capita basis.
“So, we’re holding the administration accountable. Pulling back the red tape. Working with our municipalities and with our local governments on their applications for these discretionary grant awards because they need to be coming to the Hoosier state,” Yakym stated.
After the LCA event Friday, Yakym was headed to a meeting to address some Federal Aviation Administration challenges at the Warsaw Municipal Airport.
To learn more about the U.S. 30 study, visit the ProPEL30 website at https://propelus30.com/.