Kokomo residents see turnaround in city - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Every Thursday for our Decision 2012 coverage, Eyewitness News is going on the road to find out which issues are important to you as we get closer to the November election. This week, we visited Howard County and the county seat, Kokomo.

For many towns like Kokomo, the local diner is the place to go to find out what's going on. At Jamie's Soda Fountain, you'll find a lot of regulars, like good friends Diana Lowery and Lacinda Chapman, who live and work in Kokomo and are proud of their community.

"I love it here. That's why I've stayed," Lowery said.

"It's a great place to be," Chapman said.

Over soup and sandwiches, the ladies talk of an improved park trail system, a new free trolley system and the old days in Kokomo - a community built and bred on the auto industry.

"When I first came to town, everything was Delco and Chrysler. If you had a job at Delco or Chrysler, you were set for life," Lowery said.

"My father, he got to retire from Chrysler. But I've seen a lot of people it didn't happen for," Chapman said.

The recession hit hard. Layoffs and plant closures led Forbes Magazine to proclaim the city "one of America's fastest dying cities" just a few years ago. Lowery felt it personally when her husband was laid off in 2007.

"They tapped him on the shoulder one morning, took him to the office and said, 'Your job's over,' and that's happened a lot here in Kokomo, unfortunately," she said.

But now, the women say Kokomo is becoming a success story.

"I think we are on the way back and we have some great leadership in town," Lowery said.

The auto industry is now on the rebound with more investment and more hires. The city was named "Community of the Year" last year by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Indiana University-Kokomo now has its largest enrollment ever, but the challenge remains.

"Jobs. Good jobs," Lowery said.

When it comes to jobs, there's no question manufacturing is still king in Kokomo, but everyone Eyewitness News talked with said they want more - more diverse industry, putting more people to work, and paying them well.

"Better paying jobs," Lowery said.

"We need other kinds of jobs, also," added Chapman. "That way, people can work and support their families and have the kind of life they deserve."

The friends say they're optimistic that with the right mix of business, Kokomo is in the midst of a comeback.

Life-long residents see change

For people who have spent their entire lives in Kokomo, they've seen a lot of changes over the years.

"I was born and raised in Kokomo. My dad was a teacher here in the school system, so I've been here my whole life," said Dean Hockney. "When I grew up, it seemed all of my friends had a mom or dad that worked at Chrysler or Delco and that's what everybody was going to do when they grew up. It was automatic."

He says that has changed.

"It's downsized, but it's still a key component to our growth here in Kokomo and, you know, I don't think we'd be here without them," Hockney said. "Four years ago, Forbes Magazine all but called Kokomo dead. Four years later, our unemployment's finally below 10 percent. That happened, I think, in January. I think we're at 8.9 percent now and that's always going to be a challenge and our unemployment is higher than maybe the rest of the state, but compared to when we were 17 percent just four short years ago, we've come a long way. It's not just the cars that I was talking about. We have Haynes International that's growing. They distribute worldwide."

Hockney believes the city deserves a new title, as a "comeback city."

"Absolutely it's a comeback city. Last year, we were named the top city in the state by the chamber of commerce," he said.

He has a plan for what he'd like to see out of his hometown in the future.

"We have to continue to be progressive. That's going to be key. We have to find the manufacturing jobs, that will go into the next decade, as I said earlier, whether it's in the car business, or it's a new business that our city leaders go out and find. The mayor's been to Japan. He's been around the world looking for jobs to bring to Kokomo and I think that's starting to pay off," Hockney said. "That's what I wanna see in the future. I want to see a place where our kids can grow up, have a good education, and want to stay here in Kokomo. We don't want them to leave, because they've got that education. We want them to come back and we have to have the jobs here for them to be able to do that."