Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation

10/01/2025

Congratulations to these Brownstown Central High School students!

10/01/2025

We're shining our spotlight on this month on Tyler Hosmer!

Tyler Hosmer joined Royalty Roofing a year ago as a Sales Representative at our Fort Myers branch. While new to roofing at the time, he hit the ground running. He brings years of relationship-building and customer-first experience into every appointment. His focus is simple: educate the customer, do the job right, and stand by the work. The Royalty way!

Before joining the team, Tyler earned his degree from Hodges University and built his career in sales and business development. Since stepping into the roofing world, he has leaned on the seasoned vets at Royalty for best practices, technical knowledge, and guidance. That willingness to learn has helped him close deals, build trust, and grow quickly in a tough industry.

Outside of work, Tyler has been married to his wife Heather since 2017. Their five-year-old daughter, Cecilia, keeps them on their toes and runs the house. Whatever Cecilia wants to do, they do. That is just how it goes.

When he is not spending time with his family, you will likely find Tyler on the golf course. He enjoys the pressure, the precision, and the challenge. Like roofing, golf is a game of inches. One bad swing or missed detail can change everything. That mindset shows up in his work too. Focus, discipline, and making sure the customer experience is solid from start to finish.

Thank you, Tyler for all of the great work!

10/01/2025

Power Up Indiana is a new program from the state and the Office of Commerce
that catalyzes change in employer practices by supporting those that invest in upskilling their existing workforce. It recognizes and rewards companies that train, retain and advance talent from within and builds a culture of lifelong learning across the state.

The purpose is to celebrate companies already leading in upskilling, shift Indiana’s economic development focus toward talent capacity, equip more employers to do the same through clear incentives and accessible tools and strengthen regional and sector-based partnerships that can scale impact statewide.

Power Up Indiana helps employers unlock the potential of their existing workforce. Developing talent pipelines presents the opportunity for the individual to expand their education and skill set, allowing the employer to reach goals faster.

Businesses are eligible if their company is in Indiana, they're upskilling current employees through training, certifications or leadership pathways or they're tracking growing wages.

For information, visit powerup.dwd.in.gov.

10/01/2025

09/30/2025

09/30/2025

For September 2025, the JCIDC JAG Student of the Month honoree is Brownstown Central High School senior Joanna Pitts.

She was nominated by BCHS JAG Specialist Ashley Shoemaker.

JCIDC intern Elmer Vicente recently interviewed Joanna.

Jobs for America's Graduates is a state-based national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping high school students of promise who have experienced challenging or traumatic life experiences achieve success through graduation. The resiliency-building workforce program helps students learn in-demand employability skills and provides a bridge to postsecondary education and career advancement opportunities.

JAG Indiana

09/30/2025

is a nationwide celebration to showcase the opportunities workforce development offers for Americans to develop workplace experience and skills employers value.

During September, leaders in business, labor, workforce, education and other critical industries have the opportunity to showcase the workforce development programs, participants and facilities in their local communities. Additionally, program participants have a platform to share their experience with workforce services and programs and how it has transformed their lives.

Join JCIDC in celebrating .

One of our Workforce Partnership's events is the Career College Transition Fair. Held annually in April, the event allows Jackson County high school students an opportunity to explore a variety of career pathways. More than 60 booths are set up in the commons and auxiliary gymnasium at Seymour High School from a variety of entities, including colleges, military, health care, manufacturing, nonprofit organizations, skilled trades, businesses and those that serve the special needs population.

The booths are encouraged to offer some type of interactive activity along with information about what they do. Several also have drawings or giveaways.

Upon entering the event, students are given a passport to be stamped by at least 10 booths after they interact with the business professionals and ask questions. When leaving, they turn in the passport to be entered into a drawing for prizes.

09/30/2025

In 1944, Edmund and Lura Dickson began a tiny operation called Better Sunday School and Church Supplies in the basement of their Ferndale, Michigan, Christian bookstore. At first, the only products were Sunday school ribbon pins and buttons. Seeing that these satisfied a real need, the Dicksons added more products.

In 1948, with business growing, the company moved to a house in Royal Oak, Michigan. Not long after, the name was changed to Gospel Souvenir House.

Even with an expansion, the house in Royal Oak could no longer hold the business, and in 1953, the Dicksons relocated more centrally to Seymour, Indiana, inside a building in the Freeman Field Industrial Park. Previously, it was part of the World War II training base called Freeman Army Airfield.

Renamed Dickson’s Inc., the company began operations with 12 employees. The main products were novelty items.

In 1957, an addition was built that joined the two buildings. Today, this structure, with several updates, serves as the Dicksons administration building.

In 1972, the company was named Curry Industries while continuing to use Dickson’s as a trade name. In 1985, Paul Curry retired and sold his share of the business to Templeton Coal Company of Terre Haute. David Vandivier became president, and the company name was changed to Dicksons.

09/30/2025

We had another amazing group from Cummins Inc volunteer for the Crossroads Apartment project on September 26, 2025. We had 16 volunteers who were gracious enough to travel to Seymour for this project. We were able to put w**d fabric and mulch around the front, east, and west sides of the property. Put in river rock and a large rock at the half circle in front of the building. A BIG Thank you to Robyn Moore and her husband for donating a huge rock that was placed out front.

09/29/2025