Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Editor, Times-Union:
I fondly remember my high school Spanish teacher, Ms. Perry, teaching me about an important business decision.
Research the proposed product name before you sell it in another language. The Chevy Nova, meant No Go, and was dead on arrival in Mexico, its intended country. Car makers can dream big and make costly blunders while they wreak havoc on local economies.
Unfortunately, the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation, the Kosciusko Commissioners, and the City of Warsaw have brought in the "big dream" without any critical thought, data analysis, or rigorous research. In the last 10 years, plenty of EV start-ups, including Canoo, Lordstown Motors, and Fisker, have failed, leaving communities without funds. Now, Slate is a dream, not a dream without reality. It's like leadership in Kosciusko County has been canooed - pun intended.
The reasons are easy to see. First, Slate is built upon a pile of money to burn. While Slate has a large amount of cash up front, the leadership team will quickly burn through the pile of cash, ask local leadership for more incentives, then file for bankruptcy sometime in the next 3 to 5 years, leaving the area with less tax money. Secondly, Slate is not a new concept. Small EV trucks are already built, the Nissan Leaf and the Ford Maverick, with much more fanfare. A supposed 100,000 are signed up, but we don't know if those sign-ups are legitimate. Finally, Trump is rolling back on EVs at a time when young people desire more walkable neighborhoods. Which means EVs, as well as cars in general, may have fewer sales in the future.
If Warsaw and even Northeast Indiana really wanted to grow, they would leverage money for universal pre-kindergarten and a strong investment in early education to ensure students can read and write at grade level, which would have better economic outcomes. Unfortunately, seems to have a disdain for strong, rigorous education that teaches strong research methods, along with critical thinking and data analysis that ensure communities are not scammed out of their hard-working taxpayers' dollars. Leadership has failed, but no surprise. Northeastern Indiana continues to allow poorly educated individuals to take the reins of government and aligned organizations, which is creating losses for residents.
Jodi Dean
Columbia City, via email
