The main question we want you to address is: What do you think and feel about Muncie?
- How long have you lived here? If you were not born here, indicate where you came from and why.
I’m thirty nine years old and have been a resident of Muncie since my birth in 1979. I have completed contractual work in numerous states such as Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. So far I have traveled to some other parts of the world including Brazil, France, and Italy. I believe that working in Indiana and traveling abroad has given me a more accurate understanding of our local issues as well as benefits. I have always felt comfortable and felt that I belonged here, but not felt dependent in a way that keeps me trapped here locally. I have been offered job opportunities in places as far as Texas, but have declined. I assume I will retire locally. My wife and I both have a number of relatives in Muncie or within a couple hours drive, and my employment in the manufacturing industry keep us here. Unless these situations change, we will not be moving out of the area.
My wife and I felt that the best educational path for our daughter, which will enable her have the best life, was to move to Cowan school district. This was a hard decision to make, as a Muncie Central Alumni. We felt that the Muncie Community School Corporation had repeatedly made bad decision after bad decision. This was in part tied to continually adding administrative employees, with what seemed like annual raises for administrators, while there were fewer students in the area. This led to less state funding coming in, creating a huge financial hole. All of this resulted in teacher layoff, which directly negatively impacted the students.
- Do you think the ways other people think about Muncie are the same ways you think about it? How do you your thoughts and feelings about Muncie differ from its public image (from media or word-of-mouth around the state and beyond)?
I may have a different mindset than many others. My father set a good example, by continually reaching out and helping his (our) community. Upon returning from deployment overseas and his honorable discharge from the military, my father looked around and did not like many of the issues in his community. He decided to become active in the community and make changes so that his life, and the life of his children, would be better. If we all had that resolve and motivation that we would not have the corruption issues in politics that we have had here in Muncie. Working fifty or more hours a week on second shift and trying to have family time on the weekends has blocked me from currently doing more for the community. For years, I ran a Thanksgiving and Christmas food and gift program through my local car club. I helped set up annual free family celebrations in the neighborhood I grew up in for a few years as well. Being a local Mason and Shriner member, I have also tried to help improve our city.
Going to college at Indiana University, traveling, and working in numerous states has afforded me the opportunity to engage in conversations with of many other people. Our city of Muncie is sometimes known to others and sometimes not, so we have things to be proud of, as well as things we should be ashamed of.
- How would you describe Muncie to someone who has never been here? What are its most distinctive characteristics?
To some in academia, we may be known as “Middletown” from the “Middletown Studies” (a study from 1890 until 1925 to examine the changes in the population of a “Typical American City’ during that period of economic change). It became a book in 1929 and the study has been repeated similarly a few times as it has been seen to many as a great example of an average city in our country.
Locals can study the origins and see that Lenape people arrived in the area in the 1790s and founded “Munsee Town” along the white river. It became a small trading post that was renamed “Muncietown” and finally shortened to “Muncie” in 1845. We have been a solid manufacturing and industrial area for generations since. The natural gas boom in the 1880s helped create a family owned business named Maxon to be a leader in the industry. It has since been sold to Honeywell and is actually my employer. The Ball family also started the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company before 1890 that many know from canning as “Ball Jars”. That same family later created Ball State University, which is an annual leader for performance in numerous fields of study. Proudly, I can say that my mother has a degree from that university as well. The Ball family also started Ball Memorial Hospital in 1929. As well as in World War II, Ball State and the Muncie Airport trained Navy pilots. Muncie was also a solid competitor in the steel industry as Indiana Bridge and Republic Iron and Steel Company were some of the top producers in the region. I have also worked for Indiana Bridge, so maybe I have done some research on some of the local industries in my lifetime. If that is not enough to brag about local industry, we were also lucky enough to have A.E. Boyce Company, Delco Remy, General Motors, Ontario Corporation, Warner Gear and Westinghouse, as just a few examples of top level manufacturing companies. From 2001 to 2011 Muncie lost thousands of manufacturing jobs due to the industry moving for cheaper labor. We did, however, have a small push forward when Magna Powertrain and Progress Rail established themselves here. Also Crown Equipment moved to New Castle and has employed numerous Muncie residents, including myself.
If I speak with a sports fan, I usually ask if they have watched the movie Hoosiers and I explain to them that the villain team in the final game is Muncie Central High School, which is my alma mater. Before we switched to class basketball, Muncie Central was also the all-time leader in state championships. We can brag about how Bill Dinwiddle, Bonzi Wells, Ron Bonham were all professional basketball players. Adam Lind, Buck Crouse, Hod Eller, Jeremy Hazelbaker, Richie Lewis all were professional baseball players. Brandon Gorin, Dave Duerson, Jamil Smith, Ryan Kerrigan were all professional football players. We have so many sports tied people that we have to be above average in that department.
Of course, as far as famous people and families, we have also had the Ball family. We had Benjamin Cohen who helped in administrative roles for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Gregory H, Williams was a lawyer, author, and president of University of Cincinnati as well as City College of New York. We also had Bob Ross painting here. David Letterman went to Royerton Elementary and Ball State University. Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, has his studio here as well. These are all great local bragging rights.
Muncie is also known as “Little Chicago”. During the Prohibition era of the 1920s, we had gambling, prostitution, and bootleg liquor as major crime industries. Also, John Dillinger hid out in Muncie numerous times. Years later, Muncie became a hub for drug smugglers from Chicago, Illinois to move their product to various cities in Indiana. Currently, we have methamphetamines and opioid as our biggest drug issues and they seem to be moving from Chicago and Ohio into our city. We are not unique in that issue; However, having had so many industry leaders leave our area, leaving thousands of skilled workers without the same source of income, has led to massive levels of depression and pill additions. The increase in self-medication (drug and alcohol addiction) has also resulted in an increase in other criminal activities.
The crimes are not limited to the drug trade. We have had more than our fair share of political corruption. We are currently in the middle of a good sized FBI investigation and trial of a few local politicians. I am hopeful that numerous corrupt people will be exposed, so that a positive wave of change can take over our city. We have been held back from various improvements, due to dozens of locals trying to be paid off puppet masters in control of the area. One scam that has been pulled here locally is where a business gets a tax break for a few years usually when they agree to hire a specific number of local workers. What I would like to see is an agreement that they are agreeing to also be physically here for a specified amount of time. If they are unable to they should be responsible for those tax breaks. That would force the company to not take tax payer benefits while refusing to invest is our local economy with long term plans of growth.
- What are your feelings about Muncie’s future? What are your hopes for Muncie? How do you expect Muncie will fare in the years ahead? What changes do you expect?
If we can get a few truly motivated individuals to step up and help change our city for the better, we can have a great swing back. After all, we still have a great number of skilled laborers and otherwise motivated citizens.