It’s been nearly a year since Tim Dudley’s arrival to lead Vermilion Advantage. And as reflected to Linda Bolton on 1490 WDAN’s News Makers program, the only positive thing about the pandemic, if you can even use that word, was that he had a chance early in the job to take it slow and observe things.
And indeed, Dudley says, some good things did happen in 2021. From Step Up’s efforts to bring Southern Illinois Health Care to our area, to the started work on a Fed Ex distribution center just south of the I-74 – Lynch Road interchange. With the latter proving that Vermilion County remains a very good location.
AUDIO: We’re in a very strong logistical place here in Danville. We’re just a couple of hours from Chicago; we’re just a good, hard hour’s drive from Indianapolis; you’re only about a little over a three hour drive to St. Louis. I mean we’ve got good interstate highways that run in and out of Danville and all up and down the state.
Dudley says it remains important to be able to learn from what other areas are doing. And a trip over to Lafayette, Indiana led to something that’s in development for this new year.
AUDIO: We got hooked up with an outfit called Skypack, and what we’re going to do is we’re going to go into some of our manufacturers and do videos, and do work related facts. It’s going to work related facts scaled to the kids, and we’re going to go clear back to grade school, Linda. These programs are going to be tailored even for first graders, like “See Jane’s dad work at Fibertech.”
Dudley says Illinois’ reputation as a poor state when it comes to taxes needs more attention from state legislators. Dudley says he’s very happy with this area’s representation in Springfield, but the whole state has to get on board.
