Daviess County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Ron Arnold says he’ll step down from his position at the end of the year.
In an announcement made to the www.washtimesherald.com newspaper, Arnold said a reason for leaving is that the job has quote “stopped being fun”. He said the corporation in recent years has been involved in several large projects which have brought hundreds of jobs but says the political climate has changed. That change he says is limiting the ability of the DCEDC to do its work. Arnold told the newspaper there are those who are knowingly spreading falsehoods related to economic development projects and that’s divided the support they’ve seen in the past and has slowed down progress. He commented on the loss of access to Economic Development Income Tax Funds which he credits as having been used as a backup in creating economic development. He says now the EDC has had to change the way it operates and is forced to be more conservative in its approach.
Arnold says when this job ends he’ll be doing independent consulting and hopes to work for groups and organizations that he says aggressively want to improve what they are doing. The DCEDC board is currently looking for a replacement for Arnold.