Livability East Central Indiana Magazine Touts Marion/Grant County Attractions, Businesses, and More Share

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The 2018 edi­tion of Liv­abil­i­ty East Cen­tral Indi­ana mag­a­zine released this week includes Mar­i­on and Grant Coun­ty in fea­ture sto­ries explor­ing attrac­tions, busi­ness­es, and out­stand­ing pro­grams through­out the ten-coun­ty region. 

In the pub­li­ca­tion’s ​“Dis­cov­er East Cen­tral Indi­ana” sec­tion, world-renowned leg­end James Dean’s home­town of Fair­mount includ­ing his gravesite, exhibits, and annu­al fes­ti­val, as well as his birth place of Mar­i­on is high­light­ed. Addi­tion­al­ly, an intrigu­ing dou­ble-page image in the ​“Gallery” sec­tion show­cas­es Dean’s ​’55 Tri­umph Tro­phy 500 motor­cy­cle. The Garfield Trail in Mar­i­on & Grant Coun­ty is fea­tured in the same sec­tion. The trail is a fun array of twelve Garfield stat­ues dis­persed through­out the coun­ty, salut­ing the admirable char­ac­ter’s cre­ator, Mar­i­on native Jim Davis. The Car­di­nal Green­way is also men­tioned, a 62-mile rail trail which runs through Mar­i­on as well as many small towns in Grant Coun­ty along its journey. 

The mag­a­zine’s ​“Qual­i­ty of Life” sec­tion calls atten­tion to Mar­i­on & Grant Coun­ty’s annu­al Mis­sissinewa 1812, the nation’s largest reen­act­ment of the War of 1812. Also rec­og­nized is Mar­i­on’s pop­u­lar Con­certs in the Gar­dens Series held in the nation­al­ly acclaimed Gar­dens of Mat­ter Park each summer.

In the ​“Busi­ness Cli­mate” sec­tion, Liv­abil­i­ty ECI focus­es on inter­na­tion­al invest­ment, spot­light­ing Marion’s Huh­ta­ma­ki (Fin­land), and Ardagh Group (Lux­em­burg) man­u­fac­tur­ers. ​“For­eign direct invest­ment is strong here, with 13 coun­tries hav­ing oper­a­tions in East Cen­tral Indi­ana,” they report­ed in ​“10 Good Rea­sons to Live, Work, and Invest in East Cen­tral Indiana.” 

In a sec­tion called ​“Tal­ent,” the mag­a­zine fea­tures Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools’ robot­ics pro­gram, tout­ing five ele­men­tary school robot­ics teams and two inter­me­di­ate grade teams. ​“Edu­ca­tors and busi­ness men­tors agree the skills stu­dents learn through robot­ics com­pe­ti­tions will give them an advan­tage when com­pet­ing for advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing and engi­neer­ing jobs,” quot­ed Liv­abil­i­ty ECI. Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty and Tay­lor Uni­ver­si­ty are not­ed in the mag­a­zine as advan­ta­geous high­er edu­ca­tion institutions. 

The ​“Health Care” sec­tion gives recog­ni­tion to both Mar­i­on Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, a con­ve­nient pri­vate­ly-owned com­mu­ni­ty hos­pi­tal, and the VA North­ern Indi­ana Health Care Sys­tem, also in Mar­i­on, as shin­ing exam­ples of East Cen­tral Indi­ana’s high-qual­i­ty health care facilities. 

In the ​“Culi­nary Agri­tourism” sec­tion, the read­er will find a spe­cial arti­cle on Jef­fer­son Street BBQ of Con­verse. The bustling small-town ​‘farm-to-fork’ restau­rant is not­ed for help­ing to stim­u­late the local econ­o­my and pro­mot­ing rela­tion­ships between the con­sumer and the farmer. 

The mag­a­zine is only in its 2^nd year. 7,000 copies are dis­trib­uted through­out the region, and the pub­li­ca­tion is used in efforts to pro­mote East Cen­tral Indi­ana out­side the state. In Marion/​Grant Coun­ty, you may find copies in the Mar­i­on Munic­i­pal Build­ing, Mar­i­on Pub­lic Library, Mar­i­on-Grant Coun­ty Cham­ber of Com­merce, and Grant Coun­ty Eco­nom­ic Growth Coun­cil among others.

Liv­abil­i­ty East Cen­tral Indi­ana is spon­sored by the East Cen­tral Indi­ana Region­al Partnership.

Media Con­tact:

Mindy Ken­wor­thy

President/​CEO, Liv­abil­i­ty ECI Region­al Partnership 

765.254.1420

mkenworthy@​ecirp.​org