the September Issue of the Goshen Chamber`s

C O M M O N G O O D. U N C O M M O N LY G R E AT.
Cheers to
Goshen’s
growing
tourism
industry
Downtown resurgence
and annual events
draw visitors to city
SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 6
Message from Chamber President,
David Daugherty
New members
Reliance Menno Hursh Insurance
Group
103 Johnston Street
Goshen, IN 46528
574-534-9091
www.rmhinurancegroup.com
Insurance
Rolling Scones
1100 Chicago Avenue
Suite 16
Goshen, IN 46528
574-533-8050
www.rollingscone.biz
Restaurant/Bakery
Renewals
Acruity
Agriflite Services, Inc.
AV Tech, LLC
The Award Factory
Barkes, Kolbus, Rife & Shuler, LLP
Bethany Christian Schools
Bill’s Heating, Inc.
Cripe’s Septic Cleaning
David Culp & Company, LLP
Hertzler Systems Inc.
Interra Credit Union
Maplecrest Country Club
Michiana MEDA
Michiana Recycling and Disposal
Miller Door and Trim, Inc.
Quest Diagnostics LLC
Rogers Truck Repair Service, Inc.
Scott Signs
Solution Source
Specialized Staffing Solutions
The Auto Park
Tri-State Compressed Air Systems, Inc.
Triangle Rubber & Plastics
September 2016
2
Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - The Goshen News
Volume 8 • Issue 6
The Chamber
of Commerce Goshen Inc.
232 S. Main St., Goshen, IN 46526
Phone: (574) 533-2102
Fax: (574) 533-2103
E-mail: [email protected]
E-Sources
www.goshen.org • www.facebook.com/
goshenchamberofcommerce
• www.twitter.com/goshenchamber
• www.youtube.com/goshenchamber • http://
goshenchamber.blogpost.com
Together,
Growing Goshen
At the conclusion of my articles
each month, I like to use the Chamber phrase of “Together, Growing
Goshen.” This phrase is recognition
that uncommonly great things occur
when we work together for the common good of our community. I would
like to mention a few projects that
are moving forward at this time.
cess of the fund drive. This is a once
in a lifetime opportunity to leverage a
number of organizations to make significant improvements to one of Goshen’s biggest downtown jewels.
The Goshen Theater, Inc. is making plans to launch its fundraising
campaign. This will take all of us working together to make this a reality.
Tourism promotion
Wayfinding Signs for Goshen
The main article of this month’s
Business Journal talks about the
efforts of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The
article talks about some of the great
things that the ECCVB does to
attract people to our area and the
partnership with the Goshen Chamber to promote Goshen. To learn
more about the ECCVB visit its web
site at www.amishcountry.org.
Getting around Goshen for our visitors and guests can be a difficult
task. Many communities have community signage/wayfinding systems
to help people find key landmarks.
The mayor has established a task
force to study this and develop a
plan. The Chamber, the biking community and others are a part of this
task force. The construction of the
U.S. 33 Northern Connector around
downtown and other major transportation improvements in Goshen will
make this critical in the coming
years.
Business/Education
Roundtables
Workforce development and creating career pathways for the students
in our area schools is critical to the
future of Elkhart County. Students
need information to make decisions
about their future. The business
community wants to share with our
educators and students all the opportunities that are available and let
them know what they need to learn
to be successful here in Goshen. Our
school districts and our business
community want classroom experiences that will prepare them for
whatever career choice they make.
Horizon Education Alliance and
the Goshen and Fairfield school districts have formed Business/Education Roundtables that bring these
groups together to meet the needs of
our kids. Educators and businesses
are working together to offer more
meaningful classroom experiences,
experiences that will help them see
the possibilities for a bright future.
Quality of Place:
The Goshen Theater
This is probably Goshen’s number
one quality of place project. The Goshen Redevelopment Commission has
voted to conditionally support this
project. The Regional Cities Initiative
has voted conditional support for the
project. The Elkhart Community
Foundation is waiting to see the suc-
Downtown Streetscape
Downtown Main Street will
become a city street once the U.S.
33 Northern Connector is opened
and Ind. 15 is relocated to Third
Street. This will give the City of Goshen the opportunity to make significant improvements and create a
more pedestrian friendly environment for downtown Main Street.
The mayor has appointed a task
force to look at what types of
improvements can be made to make
our downtown an even better place
for businesses and residents of our
community. The Chamber, the biking community and downtown businesses will all be working on a plan
for an even more exciting downtown.
These are but a few examples of
how Goshen works together for the
common good of our community and
achieves many uncommonly great
things.
Please be involved as we work
“Together, Growing Goshen.”
Best wishes.
David Daugherty
David Daugherty
Goshen Chamber of Commerce
2016 Board of Directors
Chairman of the Board — Todd Eby,
Eby Ford Lincoln
Chair Elect — Deb Stauffer, J. A.
Stauffer, CPA, PC
Secretary — Jim Caskey, Goshen
College
Treasurer — Tyler Springer, Springer
Design, Inc.
Immediate Past Chair — Patrick
Forrest, NIBCO, Inc., Goshen Plant
President — David Daugherty, Goshen
Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors — Stephen DePue,
Arctic Clear Products, Inc.; John
Place, Ancon Construction; Renee M.
Drake, AAMS, Edward Jones-Drake;
Levi King, Jo Jo’s Pretzels; Mark King,
Greencroft Retirement Communities,
Inc.; Mark Lindemood, IU Health Goshen
Foundation; Marty Long, Gardners
Outdoor Power Equipment; Laurie
Nafziger, Oaklawn Psychiatric Center,
Inc.; Chad Stoltzfus, Lake City Bank;
David Swihart, Yoder, Ainlay, Ulmer
& Buckingham, LLP; Rick VanDusen,
Paragon Printing Center, Inc.
THE CHAMBER STAFF
President — David Daugherty
Vice President — Nick Kieffer
Office Manager — Kathy Sponseller
Diamond Members
Ancon Construction
City of Goshen
IU Health Goshen Hospital
Platinum Members
1st Source Bank
Blue Star, Inc.
DJ Construction Company, Inc.
Goshen College
Goshen Motors
Greencroft Retirement Communities, Inc.
Interra Credit Union
MasterBrand Cabinets, Inc.
Gold Members
Arctic Clear Products, Inc.
Bill’s Heating, Inc.
Drs. Cripe, Stephens & Stickel
Optometrists
Eagle Ready-Mix, Inc.
First State Bank
Horizon Bank
J. A. Stauffer, CPA, PC
KeyBank
Kruggel, Lawton & Company, LLC
Lake City Bank
Maplecrest Insurance, LLC
Miller Poultry/Pine Manor
NIBCO, Inc. – Goshen Plant
Nuway Construction
The Elkhart Truth
Troyer Foods, Inc.
Talmer Bank and Trust
USI Insurance Service
Woldruff’s Footwear & Apparel
Yoder, Ainlay, Ulmer & Buckingham, LLP
Yoder-Culp Funeral Home
GROWING GOSHEN
Visitors adding plenty of punch to
Goshen’s booming tourism industry
By TERRY T. MARK
GOSHEN — Sometimes Goshen
Brewing Co. owner Jesse Sensenig
looks around the packed-to-capacity tasting room and recognizes only a handful
of faces.
As expected, Goshen-area residents
have embraced the family-friendly brewpub since it opened a little more than a
year ago. But from RVers passing
through the area to bicycling groups to
craft beer enthusiasts seeking yet another food and drink adventure, out-of-town
visitors account for up to 20 percent of
Goshen Brewing Co.’s sales.
“We have new faces every single day.
We get people from all over the country,”
Sensenig said.
It’s a scenario repeated across the
active downtown and throughout the
Goshen area, from the Old Bag Factory
on the north side to the Pumpkinvine
Nature Trail to destinations south of
downtown such as Goshen College and
Kercher’s Sunrise Orchard.
Hotel demand heaviest in summer
In terms of visitor traffic to Goshen,
the most in-demand period is the 22
weeks spanning June through October,
according to research commissioned by
the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In 2015, Goshen lodging establishments sold 83,146 room-nights, an average of 3,779 hotel visitors per week.
Occupancy rates at those dates averaged
70 percent in that time period.
So far in 2016, demand for hotel rooms
has increased by nearly 4 percent, while
revenue generated by those hotel stays
See GROWING | 6
The Goshen News - Wednesday, August 31, 2016
3
C O M M O N G O O D. U N
5
• Labor Day – Chamber office closed
• Ambassador month
chamber office.
13
• The Office of Congresswoman Jackie
Walorski – Office hours 3 to 5 p.m.
20
4
Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - The Goshen News
• Goshen Chamber BOD meeting – 7:30 a.m.
C O M M O N LY G R E AT.
• Score Business Counselors – 1 to 5
p.m. Call for appointment.
7
hly meeting – noon at the
1
• Chamber University – 8 a.m. at the
chamber office.
• ISBDC Small Business Counseling
– 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call for appointment.
• HR Network monthly meeting – noon at the
chamber office.
8
• Wake Up, Goshen – 7:30 a.m. at
Greencroft Retirement Communities,
Inc. in the Senior Center.
• Score Business Counselors – 1 to
5 p.m. Call for appointment.
• ISBDC Small Business Counseling – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call for appointment.
• Sound of Economy – 7:30 a.m. at
the chamber office.
9
• Public policy meeting – 11:30 a.m. at the
chamber office.
15
22
The Goshen News - Wednesday, August 31, 2016
For additional information contact
the Chamber office @ 574.533.2102
5
GROWING
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
have grown 10 percent.
And those numbers don’t account
for the RV rallies on the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds, which attract thousands of visitors each year. The largest
of the rallies, the Forest River Owners
Group, draws roughly 2,000 people
each August.
With programs championed by the
ECCVB and Goshen Chamber of Commerce, as well as exciting new events
developed by businesses and attractions, the city should continue to be a
big draw for the near future.
Building an audience
The ECCVB’s annual travel guide
“Heritage Trail Adventures” is distributed throughout the Midwest to potential visitors who request information
about Elkhart County. The 68-page
glossy magazine is also available at
tourist destinations and travel plazas
along the Indiana Toll Road.
The CVB has also partnered with
Goshen businesses and city government on funding to increase the capacity of visitor attraction and building the
visitor experience. These programs
include assistance for the Goshen Theater’s fundraising efforts and downtown wayfinding signage.
Travel media have also featured
PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED
THE OLD BAG FACTORY, located at 1100 N. Chicago Ave., is one of the businesses helping to bring visitors from across the state and the country to Goshen. Residents and visitors not only share the past, but
also benefit from the talents of local artisans at the refurbished Old Bag Factory.
Goshen destinations prominently, with
mentions for the Pumpkinvine, Olympia Candy Kitchen, Quilt Gardens and
South Side Soda Shop, among others,
in publications such as Midwest Living, Life and USA Today.
Further, the state of Indiana’s 2016
travel guide cited Venturi and Ignition
Garage as “surprise” finds in the area
while also featuring prominently a
photo of Goertzen Pottery, drawing
attention to the Old Bag Factory as
another unique destination in Goshen.
6
Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - The Goshen News
The visitor experience
Maureen Kercher, the owner of
Kercher’s Sunrise Orchard, takes
great pride in the experience that they
have created for visitors of all ages.
“We just add a different dimension
to the area,” Kercher said. “I think we
attract people to the area who want to
see something a little bit different.”
With few orchards in the immediate
area, Kercher’s offers the authenticity
of a working farm that appeals to
school groups for field trips, as well as
multiple generations for an all-around
family attraction.
“My goal 20 years ago was to make
every weekend a harvest festival,”
Kercher said. So, any given weekend,
it’s common to see families of all types
and sizes, including three generations
with grandparents, their adult children
and their families.
Kercher’s also benefited from the
growing popularity of “staycations,” or
people choosing to enjoy their vacations closer to home, perhaps a oneday drive. Those sorts of visitors tend
to make multiple visits, coming at one
CARRYING A BASKET to use for hauling apples, two young girls
make their way through the orchard at Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards at
19498 C.R. 38, Goshen.
time of year to pick apples, for instance,
and then returning later in the year for
fall activities, Kercher added.
The word about Kercher’s and Goshen has spread to Notre Dame and St.
Mary’s College, which has sent busloads of mother-daughter weekend
pairings to the orchard for a day on the
farm, she said.
Booming downtown
much bigger than the monthly First
Fridays. But those downtown special
events have been joined by an increasingly frequent array of other events
that complement them.
The River Bend Film Festival
enjoyed an outstanding first year in
downtown Goshen, drawing visitors
not only to theater venues such as the
Goshen Theater and Art House, but
also to its neighbors.
Meanwhile, Goshen Brewing is one
of a number of businesses benefiting Bicyclists drawn
from the resurgence of downtown.
to local businesses
“We’re involved with a lot of local
The annual Pumpkinvine Ride drew
businesses,” Sensenig said, citing 1,162 riders to the area in June, with
partnerships with other local busi- many coming from distant areas of
nesses for events.
As far as partnerships, they don’t get
See GROWING | 7
BRIEFLY
THE GOSHEN NEWS
1st Source Ranked No. 10
Best Performing Bank
Ancon Construction
announces promotions,
new hires
Indiana, Michigan and Ohio and as
far away as Chicago. That ride was
supplemented by hundreds more by
the Bloom & Zoom ride, which also
used the Pumpkinvine Trail as one of
its main routes to direct riders to
Quilt Gardens and other points of
interest throughout Elkhart County
and southwest Michigan.
And sometimes the riders just
show up on their own without the
benefit of an organized event.
On the same day as the Bloom &
Zoom ride in July, 47 members of the
Evanston, Illinois Bicycle Club and
Lakeshore Ski Club in suburban Chicago set out for a day of riding the
Pumpkinvine. Most of them ended
their day at Goshen Brewing Co. for
dinner and drinks before returning to
their hotel.
In the future
Projects that are in the works only
promise to draw more visitors to
Goshen.
A new hotel recently gained preliminary approval for development
near Fidler Pond Park. To be owned
Terry T. Mark is the director of
and operated by Scott and Sarah communications for the Elkhart
Baker, who already run the nearby County Convention and Visitors
Best Western, the new Glo brand Bureau.
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Gary Wetzel has been promoted to
senior vice president of planning and
design. Wetzel is responsible for the
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
would be a 79-room property a hip,
boutique-style hotel that will offer
amenities and features to complement Goshen’s considerable assets,
including the nearby park.
The project has already garnered
the praise and support of Goshen
Mayor Jeremy Stutsman, who told the
Goshen Plan Commission at a public
hearing, “I think this will be a great
addition, not only for our park, but for
our city, and the type of hotel they’re
planning on bringing in will really add
to what Goshen already offers.”
Further, two Goshen projects are in
line to receive funding from the
Regional Cities initiative — the renovation of the Goshen Theater and the
development of a multi-use recreational facility along the Millrace Canal.
The Vibrant Communities initiative, which brought together Elkhart
County’s communities to identify and
promote further projects to enhance
quality of place, has a number of
ideas that will become reality in the
coming years. Those ideas, including
redevelopment of the former Elkhart
County Jail site, will boost the arts
and culture of the area and further
cement Goshen’s attractiveness to
residents and visitors alike.
The Goshen News - Wednesday, August 31, 2016
SOUTH BEND — 1st Source
Corp., parent company of 1st Source
Bank, has been ranked the No. 10
best performing bank in the country,
according to Bank Director Magazine. 1st Source ranked No. 10 out of
102 banks with $5 to 50 billion in
assets. The rankings were released
in Bank Director’s annual 2016 Bank
Performance Scorecard, based on
2015 results.
“1st Source Bank is pleased to be
ranked the No. 10 best performing
bank in the country among our
peers,” said Christopher J. Murphy
III, chairman and CEO. “By remaining focused on our mission of helping our clients achieve security, build
wealth and realize their dreams we
continue to be profitable and show
strong results. We’ve grown by listening and then giving straight talk and
sound advice keeping our clients’
best interests in mind. Similarly we
have always focused on the longterm performance of the bank and
operate with strong capital and
reserves for the benefit of our clients. Lastly, we are blessed with
great colleagues who love being in
service to others and giving back
with their time and talent to the communities we serve.”
To develop the rankings, Bank
Director used five key metrics that
measure profitability, capitalization
and asset quality — core return on
average equity (ROAE), core return
on average assets (ROAA), the ratio
of tangible common equity (TCE) to
tangible assets, the ratio of nonperforming assets to total loans and other real estate owned, and the ratio of
net charge offs to average loans.
1st Source Corp. has assets of $5.4
billion and is the largest locally controlled financial institution headquartered in the northern Indiana-southwestern Michigan area. The Corporation includes 80 banking centers, 22
1st Source Bank Specialty Finance
Group locations nationwide, eight
Trust and Wealth Management locations and 10 1st Source Insurance
offices. For more than 150 years, 1st
Source has been committed to the
success of the communities it serves.
For more information, visit
www.1stsource.com.
overall management and coordination of Business Development and
Design at Ancon. He will continue to
work closely with customers on preconstruction activities,
including site feasibility, site engineering,
cost estimating and
facility planning.
Wetzel has 34 years’
experience in the construction industry. He
received his bacheGary Wetzel
lor’s degree in Civil
Engineering from Tri
State University, and
is a registered engineer in Indiana and a
LEED®Accredited
Professional. Wetzel is
on Ancon’s ESOP
Committee and Board
of Directors. He has
Ryan Kring
served on the Indiana
Associated Builders
and Contractors’ Executive Committee, as
board president and
council president; the
Economic Development Corp. of Elkhart
County; and is a past
Greg Welsch
president of the
Elkhart Morning
Rotary, where he continues to be a
member. Wetzel is also involved with
the Boy Scouts of America — LaSalle
Council. Wetzel and his wife live in
Granger.
Ryan Kring has joined Ancon serving as vice president of business
development. Kring received his
bachelor’s degree in Communications from Purdue University. Kring’s
role will be to maintain existing client
relationships and develop new relationships in Ancon’s surrounding
regions specific to new construction
and large renovation projects. Kring
will also be responsible for future
Ancon marketing initiatives. Kring is
a member of the South Bend Rotary
Club; Young Professionals Network;
president of BOMA|Michiana chapter; vice president for the South Bend
Alumni Association; and is an active
volunteer throughout the region.
Kring and his wife are lifelong area
residents and live in South Bend.
Gregory Welsch has rejoined
Ancon as a concrete foreman. Welsch
has more than 30 years’ experience
with concrete finishing and supervision, and was previously employed
by Ancon from 1987 to 2004. Welsch
will be responsible for supervising
and mentoring concrete crew members. Welsch is a graduate of Elkhart
Memorial High School. He and his
wife live in Bristol.
GROWING
SURPRISE PATROL
PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED
THE GOSHEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE August Suprise Patrol
stops at the Goshen Public Library.
8
Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - The Goshen News
THE GOSHEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE August Surprise Patrol
visits Greencroft Communities.
THE GOSHEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE August Surprise Patrol
visits Quality Drive Away in Goshen.