Mayor Blair Milo announces her candidacy at Jaeger-Unitek.
Photos by Bob Wellinski (click to enlarge)
Leading a crowd of about 100 invited supporters in the cheer “I believe that we will soar,” LaPorte Mayor Blair Milo announced Thursday morning, Dec. 4, 2014, that she will seek a second term as mayor in 2015.
Milo made the announcement at Jaeger-Unitek Sealing Solutions on Koomler Drive. Jaeger-Unitek CEO Mark Dilley opened the event by telling the crowd how the mayor was instrumental in “singing the praises of LaPorte” to encourage the company’s executives to open a facility here. He said the firm started just over a year ago with 38 workers, now has 134, and plans to add more next year.
“I continue to thank her every time I see her,” he said.
In her speech, Milo touched on future efforts for business growth in the city and area, including teaming with Ivy Tech to open a training center on Whirlpool Drive to create a skilled local workforce.
Milo also noted that the unemployment and crime rates have decreased in the past three years, while public transportation ridership and city salaries have risen.
In seeking another four years, Milo said she hopes to continue to lead LaPorteans “to be the change we wish to see in the community.”
Here’s the transcript of Milo’s Dec. 4 announcement speech:
I am so grateful to be able to announce the plans for the next chapter in my leadership of this community here at (Jaeger-Unitek) as it is a great example of the opportunities that our community team is building. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate with you as you’ve retained 75 positions and grown 62 more with your recent relocation. When you succeed, LaPorte succeeds, as we have been proud to say with multiple major projects like Alcoa Howmet’s addition of a second plant which will bring 330 new jobs, or Monosol’s growth of 37 new positions, or American Licorice’s growth of 35 new jobs and the creation of a rail spur sparking the 137-acre expansion of the Thomas Rose Industrial Park.
Our most recent economic data showcases the results of these successes as the City of LaPorte currently lists an unemployment rate of 3%. With these achievements also comes the challenge of training and equipping a workforce able to meet the needs of our employers and we are excited to partner with Ivy Tech as we build career training opportunities both in the LaPorte Community School Corporation as well as the soon-to-open LaPorte Ivy Tech training site on Whirlpool Drive. While we work to build these training opportunities as well as install infrastructure in both the Thomas Rose expansion and NewPorte Landing in the next year, we are excited to continue supporting our local industries and businesses. We’ve diligently worked to build a great climate for business and economic development and are thrilled to celebrate the results with the team.
In 2011, when I started my journey with the City of LaPorte, we built a team focused on not only creating the best climate for business and economic development, but on addressing our foundational needs of maintaining and improving our infrastructure and taking on tough challenges like reducing substance abuse and fostering positive lifestyle choices. Since I’ve had the honor of leading this team, we’ve had great achievements in all of these areas and I couldn’t be more proud of this regional team who has helped make this happen. We had many hurdles to work through due to the unique challenges of our property tax delays, but with special legislation supported by LaPorte’s entire state legislator delegation, we’ve made great strides in returning to a routine, planned execution of our balanced budgets. We’ve had the opportunity to start to invest more in our road and sidewalk maintenance and put tools in place to create routine maintenance plans and funding sources. There is certainly much more work that we plan to do in the coming years, but with the enormity of the cost of these efforts we’ve made great strides in creating long-lasting opportunities and not just temporary fixes.
With the growth of economic opportunities in the community and outstanding innovative efforts of our police department, we’ve consistently decreased our crime rate by 6% in 2012, 19% in 2013 and an additional 10% through November of this year, resulting in a total decrease in crime since January 2012 of 35%. With the dedication of the City Council, we’ve supported our hard-working employees, who bore a sizeable share of the property tax challenge, by steadily increasing salaries 6% and restructuring our health care benefits to a plan that is competitive with both cities and private companies of our size. We’ve increased our public transportation ridership by 22%, now resulting in larger financial support from the federal government. In pursuit of our commitment to reduce substance abuse, we’ve supported prevention programs in the schools, added a K9 unit and cross training opportunities to our police department, and helped support outpatient rehabilitation treatment resources.
All of these items were accomplished with the dedication, the devotion, the love that our community team has for this city. Crucial to all of our successes is the dedicated public servant that LaPorte is blessed to have in the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office of Teresa Ludlow. I routinely marvel at her ability to navigate the detailed processes and bureaucratic trials of government finance, especially as we’ve worked our way through uncharted financial territory with the property tax challenges. She has ensured that LaPorte is in the most responsible financial position to succeed as possible. Teresa is a tremendous asset to this community and I will be honored to be one of her many champions as she seeks re-election.
With all of these successes — the focus on opportunities instead of challenges, the momentum to be one of Indiana’s greatest cities, and the decisions to be the change that we want to see in local government — we have much to be proud of. LaPorte is on a trajectory toward even greater opportunities as long as we have the courage to pursue them. It is with much appreciation for the chance that you’ve given me these past three years to lead this team that I ask you to carry that support forward as I seek to continue serving as your mayor.
While we’ve made great strides since 2012, there are so many exciting opportunities to build on these successes. Over the coming months we’ll have the opportunity to talk more specifically about the philosophies, plans and programs to empower our community to not only continue on a positive path, but soar above the goals we set for ourselves; to be the change that we wish to see in our community. Our organization of goals in the areas of building the best climate for business and economic development, providing for sustainable infrastructure needs and fostering positive lifestyle choices has proven itself on target, but as any organization wishing to grow we must push ourselves to reach new heights in each of these areas. Our new goals must continue our commitment to aggressive business attraction, retention and growth opportunities while increasing our focus on workforce development. We must develop infrastructure plans that support routine maintenance while accounting for new and diverse transportation modes. While building our resources to reduce substance abuse, we must equip our future generations not just to resist debilitating temptations, but to have the critical thinking and communication skills that make such decisions easy as they focus on a diverse array of opportunities that await them.
This campaign isn’t just about Blair Milo; this campaign is about who we are and want to be as a community. It’s about how we’ve risen from and to the challenges set before us. We do what is hard to achieve, what is great, and there are exciting challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us as we work not just to win an election or grow our tax base, but to empower our community – our businesses, our schools, our churches, our neighborhoods, our citizens – to soar. As we’ve celebrated with our student athletes and musicians at LaPorte and New Prairie high schools over the recent weeks I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to respond to folks asking if there’s something special in the water with, “All I can say is we breed champions in LaPorte, Indiana,” and nothing could be more true. I have the opportunity to see it every day in our city employees, our non-profit leaders, our health care providers, our educators, our employers and our citizens. I know that each and every one of us is equipped to rise to the opportunities to help develop our workforce, to creatively maintain and build our infrastructure, and to give our next generation of leaders the tools they need to succeed by growing critical thinking and communication skills, displaying the value of hard work, and encouraging the responsibilities of citizenship.
Most importantly, this campaign isn’t about making lofty promises; this campaign is about delivering on what we say we’ll do. I’m asking for your support on May 5 and Nov. 3 not because we’ve made grand promises, but because we want to continue to deliver on what we say we’re going to achieve.
Just as we accomplished our economic, infrastructure and positive lifestyle gains as a team, this campaign and this movement to be the change we wish to see will take your commitment and your investment of time, talent and/or treasure. There are volunteers throughout the room who can assist you with how you can help as I ask you today to support the Friends of Blair Milo campaign and for your vote in 2015 so that I may continue to lead this amazing community team.
Now as many of you know, when I have the chance to speak with a group of people, I try to be the change that I wish to see by encouraging individuals to incorporate 30 minutes of activity in your daily routine. 70% of our healthcare expenses across the US go toward managing chronic disease, almost all of which is preventable with 30 minutes of physical activity each day and attention toward nutrition.
So as I close I’d like to ask all of you to stand up and we’re going to have a little exercise as we modify a cheer heard at the FIFA World Cup and was rampant in the high school football competitions. The chant usually revolves around the phrase, “I believe that we will win!”, but as we discussed earlier, this campaign isn’t just about winning, it’s about a community that can soar to new heights. So I’m going to ask that you put your fists in the air and follow me in the cheer of “I believe that we will soar!” Thank you for all of your support for our community and for joining me today.
Milo leads supporters in an “I believe that we will soar” cheer.
Someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to the mayor serves refreshments at the campaign event.