Q: Tell me about some of your earliest memories about Valpo and the area in general.
A: I grew up in downtown Gary, a long time ago, and a couple of memories stick out in my mind. When I was little, our family would take a trip to Seven Dolors Shrine in South Haven. It's now part of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish. I've noticed they have sold off a lot of the grounds and they have housing and apartments in that area, but I think that the shrine is still there.
Every now and then, I'll go to the church on Saturday night, but I haven't visited the shrine. Back in those days, taking a trip from downtown Gary to South Haven wasn't something you did in half an hour. It was pretty much something you did on a Sunday afternoon or early evening trip. I can still remember pretty vividly the shrine there. It's just something that's always stuck out as a memory for me.
Ed Charbonneau Video Interview: Part One | Part Two
One other memory is trying to figure out where I was on IN-130 out of Hobart to Valparaiso. There was a fountain on the side of the road with a bubbling spring that you could stop and drink water out of it, and I can't figure out where it was back then. But, those are early early memories. I went to Emerson High School in Gary and we played Valparaiso High School in basketball and baseball. I remember those games quite well.
Q: What brought you to Valpo then as an adult?
A: I worked for US Steel for 36 years. From a history standpoint, my grandfather on my mother's side tapped the first heap of steel at Gary Works. So, we go back a long way. My daughter was the 4th generation that worked for the steel company. After she graduated from Valparaiso University, she went and worked. After she had her first child, she decided to become a full-time mother and didn't go back [to work].
But anyways, after I graduated from Wabash, I walked down the street. We lived right down the street from the employment office, and I got my first job after college. Over the years, the corporation moved me around the country. We lived in Baytown, TX, right outside of Houston. We lived in San Francisco and Pittsburgh. My office was in Chicago two different times, and I was in Gary three times. We were living in San Francisco, and the corporation moved me to Chicago. I'm from Gary, my wife is from Hammond, and my office was in Chicago.
I felt that the commute from the western suburbs was going to be a lot easier because of the train system that they have in Illinois, so we started looking for homes. But, my heart, and I think my wife's heart, weren't really up for living in Illinois. Both of our parents were still alive. It seems like the longer we looked, the farther along the tip of Lake Michigan we were looking for homes. Finally, one day my wife went out and picked up a realtor for a day in Valparaiso. This is two months into looking for houses. The first time she came to Valparaiso, the real estate agent went around and showed her a couple houses. And, she said, "You know, I think I know exactly the house that you will be interested in." And, the next day she took her and showed her the house that we've been living in the for the past 30 years.
It was pretty remarkable. The owners at the time were trying to sell it by themselves. This was obviously a good real estate agent. She listened to my wife, she listened to what she was interested in. She went to the owners of the home and got a 24-hour listing. The rest is history. We have loved Valparaiso. We have absolutely stumbled into just an ideal location where we live. It's great to walk to the high school for the kids and right by the golf course and St. Paul's Church. Everything just worked out perfectly.
Q: What do you really love about living in Valpo?
A: Parks. They're just an ideal place for young families. Really for anybody. We were concerned about the things to do for kids. And, the school system is outstanding. We sent our two children to St. Paul's Grade School, but it was a close call, because I went to parochial school growing up. I always thought I wanted my kids to go to parochial school and you come to a town like Valparaiso where you get a really good school system certainly other things enter into the equation. The reading, the writing, the arithmetic that they're going to get, because it's a very good education in the public schools.
But, the park system and the Boys and Girls Club is right downtown. Our son, in particular, played everything; all the sports. I had a chance to coach his soccer team, coach his basketball team when they were playing down at the Boy's and Girl's Club and again when he played for St. Paul's. There's so much in the way of things to do for young people and us also. It's a very vibrant community, and I think it's a remarkable place. It's remarkable to watch what has gone on in Valparaiso in 30 years. It's certainly a growing community, and it has grown well. I speak highly enough of the leadership of Mayor Costas, who I'm a huge fan of. I think he's a great visionary and more so, he gets things done.
One thing I will just never forget. You have certain things that go on with your wife, your kids over time, but they just stick out in your mind. Mike, our son, and I were having dinner one evening. It was a Sunday night. We probably had been golfing somewhere that day. And, we decided to go to Bistro 157 for dinner and eat outside. It was just a spectacular evening. Here I'm having dinner with my son outside and downtown Valparaiso as the sun was going down and the lights were coming on in town. I looked at Mike and said, "You know, if we were in California, if were in Colorado, we would be saying 'Man, this is great!' " And, here we have it in our own backyard. We take it for granted a lot. But, this is what people take vacations for and we have it here. We have it in our own community. It's a remarkable place.
Q: If you look for the good in something you'll find it, if you look for the bad in something, you'll find it. There's got to be a way to not always focus on the negative in something.
A: Yeah, I think you're right on target with that. And I think in part, our inability to focus on the good that we get inundated with the bad. I don't mean inundated in that that's all we get, but you look at the news, you look at the newspapers, radio. What you're hearing about and I guess what sells is the negative stuff, the bad stuff. And, we don't have enough of the emphasis on the good things that are going on.
Just this morning, I met for a little while with a woman named Cindy Patty whose daughter and two other girls are getting the equivalent of the Eagle Scout award in Boy Scouts. And, here's this lady that's been involved with these girls for 13 years. It's just heartwarming to be able to talk to somebody like that and to be able to commend them for what they're doing. And, it's so important. No matter what our business is -- whether it's government, whether it's ValpoLife -- we're in the business of people and relationships. And, we need to be focusing more and more on the good things, because they far outnumber and out-weigh the bad stuff that we seem to hear about all the time.
The reason I mentioned Mrs. Patty is that they're having their Awards Ceremony Sunday, and I'm going to go over and speak at the ceremony and award the recognition from the State Senate for what they've done, because it's a remarkable accomplishment. Whether it's Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or 4-H, it's so important. It focuses on responsibility, it focuses on being a contributing part of society and the importance of doing good and basically being a good person. You know when you're talking to an Eagle Scout, you know when you're talking to the equivalent of a Girl Scout, that you're talking to young ladies and men that are going to very successful people in life.
We have that going on in spades in Valparaiso. I think that's one of the really great things you're doing with ValpoLife. It's emphasizing what we have. And, we frequently don't appreciate what we have. We have a lot of good stuff.
Q: And, it drives me crazy that a few kids who get in a fight get media coverage, but all the other students who were being good, responsible human beings don't ever get highlighted. Again, the focus is on the negative.
A: That very point struck me as I was talking with this lady this morning, because those girls are seniors to Valparaiso High School, and, here we're talking about all the good they've done. She was talking about all the fundraisers they've done, the different things they have done to help elderly people. And, I flash to the newspaper talking about the two fights that happened at the high school the other day, and like you said, you've got 2,000 other people who are doing the right thing for the right reasons. We're now thinking of 4 people who got into a fight. That's not good.
Q: How do you as a politician work together with other politicians and not just be a "Republican"?
A: I'm still pretty politically naive. I had not been in politics at all. I've always been in business my entire life until I retired from the hospital, a CEO job, and they asked me if I wanted to be the state senator with Vic Heinold moving to Louisiana. So, I find it troubling that so much of politics is partisanship and so much of it is not searching for doing good, doing what's right, doing what's appropriate for improving society, improving the quality of life for the citizens of Indiana. It's more about 'how can I make myself look good so I can be re-elected?' or 'how can I make my opponent look bad?' to ensure whether it's the Republicans or the Democrats so they don't, whoever they is, don't get control and 'we' maintain control. And, that's not good. That's not good for society. We're too focused on the wrong things. That's a challenge.
It's something that we're going to have to get beyond. I'm not sure what the solution is. Part of the solution is we just have to electing good people. Our constitution is premised upon having good people running government. And, that's premised on you and me and everybody else that goes into the voting booth understanding who they're voting for and why they're voting for them. And even beyond that, making sure you go vote. I mean we're being governed by 20 percent of voter turnout, 30 percent of voter turnout other than very unusual elections. We need to get the citizens back engaged and involved.
One of the things I encourage for junior high and high school students is to come down to the state legislature for a day and become a page. Become a page for me or Ed Soliday or any of the other state legislatures that they'd like to. It's a very good experience. It's an excused day off from school. They can experience just a little bit of what we do.
Any time I'm talking to students, I ask 'How many of you have ever gone to a city council meeting or a school board meeting?' Most frequently, nobody has. I mean, you can ask the parents that question and the answer is going to be the same and that's unfortunate. A lot of kids say, "I'd like to have your job." Well, how do you know that? So, it's an educational thing. I spoke last week over at Culver, and it was over the Constitution, the remarkable document put together by our founding fathers over 200 years ago. I think it's awesome that we still have that document pretty much as it's written with a few amendments.
Those folks either knew what they were doing or were awfully lucky, and I choose to believe that they knew what they were doing. And, we're going through a period of time where there are so many things going on where the very fundamental principles of government are being brought into question now. A lot of it goes back to the Constitution and what rights did the states give to the federal government and what do they keep for themselves. We're seeing that coming up pretty frequently these days. It's important that the youngsters and adults as well kind of get a feel for that.
Q: Can you tell a story about folks who did get along politically who did good things from your own experience?
A: This session down in Indianapolis, we passed a bill called the "Illiana Bill". The concept I think is great. It's very forward thinking. It's a very creative way for the State of Indiana to build infrastructure at a time when the state revenues are in the tank. Well, everybody's revenue is in the tank. So, there isn't money to go out and do infrastructure repairs.
In the midst of all of this, in the midst of 20 percent cut in administration that the governor has done, we just passed legislations that's called the Illiana Expressway, but it's a public-private partnership, which will allow the state to go out and get private investors to invest their money. We're going to be building state infrastructure with other people's money. What a great concept and at a great point in time. And, that was something that flew through the Senate without one negative vote being cast at any point in the process.
So, you have Republicans and Democrats, it was a non-partisan this really makes sense for the state of Indiana at this point in time. And, it went through the House almost unanimously. I think there were 6 out of 100 votes cast against it. And, you don't know what reasons those folks might have had, but pretty much consensus in both the House and the Senate that this is the right kind of thing for Indiana to be doing at this point in time.
Q: So, you guys do get along at times?
A: Yes, it does happen. I think that happens a lot more than people realize.
The citizens of a state elect 50 state senators and 100 state representatives and we go down [to Indianapolis] and our primary responsibility is to draft legislation that's needed. I'd like to think and I think you're right that those 150 people have the best interests of the state of Indiana in mind. That's an awesome responsibility.
When I think about the fact that Indiana is 6.3 million people, and I have the opportunity of being one in 50 in the entire state. That's a pretty awesome responsibility. And, I think because of that everyone else feels the same way. They're elected to represent their constituents for sure, but ultimately it's doing what's best for the citizens of Indiana. And maybe it gets back to what we were talking about before.
You read about the real contentious, the real volatile issues that there isn't agreement on when I would say the vast majority of cases that the legislation that is passed is almost unanimous. More likely than not out of the 50 senators, you're going to get 40+ of those who are in favor of most all legislation that comes through the system. There's one more time where the focus is always on the inflaming stories that are going to get people's attention for whatever reason. 'Man, I want to read about those two guys who are calling each other names' or whatever as opposed to 'We did this to help autistic children'. That kind of stuff I can almost guarantee is going to be passed almost unanimously, if not unanimously, all the time. And, that's the kind of stuff that we deal with quite a bit.
Q: Sounds like you can make a real difference.
A: It has been a real learning experience. We're all elected to represent their constituents, and it's basically we're dealing with 150 free agents that are all down there, because they've been sent down there by their constituents, and you have to convince them that this is the right thing to do in any situation. So, it gets very interesting at times. Also, very frustrating at times.
Q: What are you most excited about for the region of Northwest Indiana and not just Valpo?
A: For a long time, we have struggled as a region to really be a region. That in fact, works in unison in dealing with issues. And when you look around, the real economic development opportunities come not so much focused on Valparaiso or focused on Hobart or LaCrosse. It's focused on a region.
The Northwest Indiana Forum is looking at economic development from a regional perspective. NIRPC, Regional Transportation, the RDA; the concept is a great concept. It's how do we get together as a region. Nobody can live their entire life and not worry about going into Chicago or not worry about going to the Lakeshore. It's an integrated society that we live in. When you look at economic development, people come in here and 'What are the school systems like?' and 'What is transportation like?', 'What is the quality of life like?' for people I might be bringing in here as employees. And, we're blessed with 6 universities, not even going as far as Notre Dame: Purdue campuses, Valparaiso, IU Northwest, Ivy Tech. There are lot of good schools here.
It's the opportunities. We need to be making sure we are creating the environment that is good for economic development so when your kids grow up and when my kids grow up, there will be jobs that will keep them here. It's not done by a narrow focus on my territory. There's no way to survive in this day and age by erecting a fence around whether it's a city whether it's a community, whether it's a township. That's not the way life is anymore. It's important that we look at all the opportunities that we have to be a partner. It's been a gradual thing.
There's a lot of history involved. I said I was born in Gary. There's a lot of people that were born in Gary that are now living in other places for various reasons. I'm here because this is where I wanted to live when I moved back from San Francisco. So, we need to be getting beyond a lot of the thinking that seems to persist because of history. I mean, history is way back. It's troubling at times, but I think we're making progress.
Q: Is there anything else that people might want to know about you?
A: There are two individuals that I think made a difference in my life. In living in Valparaiso for 30 years, the first is Monsignor Charlebois who is now passed away. But, it's kind of remarkable. He grew up in downtown Gary just a few blocks from where I grew up. We went to St. Luke's Church together. And you can imagine, Charbonneau and Charlebois, you can imagine over the years, 'Oh yeah, isn't your brother the priest?'
When we moved into the area after moving back from San Francisco and started attending St. Paul's Church, low and behold, the pastor is Monsignor Charlebois. I've known him all my life almost, I've known the family all my life, and here he is the pastor at the church that we're attending. What he did over the years and the way he touched people's lives in a positive way -- you just look at the campus over there now -- the whole concept is tremendous, like the Tiny Tim's Day Care Center, with the clothing center. So many things that he did that it was under his leadership where all of this stuff started. He was a remarkable man that touched a whole lot of lives during his lifetime, and I still think he touches peoples' lives even though he's not with us any longer.
The other person I have a lot of respect for is Gary Mitchell who is retiring now from Opportunity Enterprises. When I lived in Gary when I was with US Steel, I was on the Board of Directors and at one point was Chairman of the Board of Tradewinds, which is a similar organization [to Opportunity Enterprises] in Gary. Now, I think I'm about to join the board of Opportunity Enterprises. And, I really want to help. Anytime that anybody feels sorry for themselves, thinks it's a terrible day; what you need to do is stroll through Opportunity Enterprises. It gives you a chance to understand the real challenges that many of us are given and the great feeling when those individuals are given an opportunity to overcome those challenges and be given the ability to feel important, be given the ability to contribute.What Gary Mitchell has done at Opportunity Enterprises is remarkable. I can't say enough about him.
As I was thinking about people who might have made a difference in my life in the Valparaiso area, Monsignor Charlebois and Gary Mitchell are the two names that popped up. They made a difference in my life, but they have made a world of difference in a whole bunch of peoples' lives in a whole spectrum of need. I'm indebted to them, and I know a lot of people in our community and surrounding communities that dedicate their gratitude to both of them.