President Barack Obama made a historic visit to Wakarusa Wednesday to announce $39 million in grant money for Navistar, the corporation that recently purchased and reopened two local Monaco plants. Pilot Photo/Mandy McFarland

By Mandy McFarland
Staff Writer

WAKARUSA — Wakarusa’s Monaco plant was President Barack Obama’s location of choice Wednesday, when he announced millions of dollars in stimulus funds for businesses across the U.S.

With a VIP crowd made up of current Navistar employees, President Obama made the announcement in a nationally-televised event that $2.4 billion in grants would go to industries that produce fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Further, he announced $39 million in grant funds for Navistar, the company that purchased and re-opened two Monaco facilities in Wakarusa in June.

Obama spoke optimistically, stating that this would create thousands of jobs for Hoosiers.
He also stated that universities in Indiana like Purdue, Notre Dame, Ivy Tech and Indiana University would receive grant funding to develop programs focusing on electric vehicles.

Obama discussed the Recovery Act, passed less than a month after he took office. He stated that it was divided into three parts. One third, he said, went to tax relief for families and small businesses.
“A tax cut began showing up in paychecks of 4.3 million Indiana households about three months ago,” he said. “We also cut taxes on small businesses, on the investments they make.”

Another third of the Recovery Act funds, he said, went to emergency relief for people hit hard by economic downturn.

“We’re making health insurance 65 percent cheaper for families that are relying on COBRA while looking for work,” he said. “For states facing historic budget shortfalls we provided assistance that has saved the jobs of tens of thousands of teachers and police officers and other public servants.”
The final third, he said, is for investments like the recent resurfacing of the runway at the Elkhart airport, a 4-mile stretch of U.S. 33 and other local improvement projects.

Health insurance reform and education were also major topics Obama focused on during his presentation, promising healthcare reform by the end of the year.

“In order to lead in the global economy and ensure our busineses can grow and innovate, we also have to pass health insurance reform,” he said.

Obama said the Recovery Act modernized healthcare infrastructure, like computerizing health records, “which can reduce all the waste and errors that cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives while protecting patients’ rights.”

On the education side, Obama challenged the states to raise standards, upgrade their science labs and update their curriculum.

“If we’re building new cars here in America, if we’re building a new clean energy grid in America, then we’re also going to need to build engineers in America and scientists in America and skilled technicians right here in America,” he said.

Navistar employee Herman Wiley of Elkhart, who works as a group leader in the motorized division, was chosen to introduce Obama during his visit. Wiley was laid off from Monaco in December and hired back in June. Despite his temporary unemployment, he expressed confidence in the future.
“I have great faith that someday this economy will turn around, that someday we’ll be producing RVS as plentiful as we have in the past,” he said.

Wiley has been with Monaco for 32 years, since it was known as Holiday Rambler.

Wiley’s family came to Indiana from Arkansas in 1970, when he was 15.