At last year’s Roadshow, I missed a very wonderful connection thanks to the somewhat enigmatically labeled “XNA” airport code for the Northwest Arkansas Airport – which you can and should read all about in this month’s article from Bill Brown.
Thankfully, we got to catch up in early February at the Indiana Sustainability and Resilience Conference, a sold-out gathering at IUPUI in Indianapolis that brought more than 350 people together from all across Indiana, including former Mayor Graham Richard of Ft. Wayne, who is a personal hero of mine. I was delighted to be welcomed as an honorary Hoosier for surviving (and actually really liking) the legendary horseradish-reinforced cocktail sauce at Harry and Izzy’s.
There was such excitement and so many conversations about how the Inflation Reduction Act is enabling great ideas to become real projects serving people across the state. I love how the spirit of innovation echoed Indiana’s place in history as home to America’s very first public power utility, which was launched in 1880 when local community members in Wabash hitched a threshing machine to the Courthouse and illuminated the town with light.
That’s the spirit we all need to plow the biggest federal investment in rural power in a century into our communities and hometowns. Let’s get to work! And like Bill, when life hands us a lemon, let’s make the very best lemonade.