Economist tells group worst appears behind us

As Johnson County Development Corp. leaders craft goals for the year, they received a cautiously optimistic forecast from an Indiana University economist.

Economist Kyle Anderson spoke during the organization’s annual meeting this week. He reviewed details of the recession that has impacted the nation over the past five years and discussed trends that indicate the worst may be over.

“Right now is the most optimistic I’ve been in the last five years,” he said.

Recently, Anderson said, he has seen signs that the recovery may be gaining momentum. The stock market is at historic highs, and the housing market has been steadily improving. Locally, home construction was up about 33 percent in 2012, peaking for the first time since 2007.

“This slow recovery just kind of continues, over and over again,” he said.

The development corporation hopes to see more collaboration within the county through a new initiative called the Aspire Johnson County Effort. The goal of the effort is to prompt community members to work together to bring investors to the area, said chairman Larry Heydon, who is president and chief executive officer of Johnson Memorial Hospital.

“We have a great spirit of teamwork, a great spirit of collaboration in this county, and that’s going to help us going forward,” Heydon said.