Oct. 22 will be a huge day for the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor Inc., Gov. Mitch Daniels and for the State of Indiana's road system. That will be the day the last groundbreaking will be held for the final leg of the highway which will link Lafayette and Fort Wayne, traveling through the heart of Carroll County.

The public is encouraged to attend the 1:30 p.m. groundbreaking ceremony for the Hoosier Heartland Highway to be held at the Faith Baptist Church Community Center, located at 5526E. SR26, Lafayette, just past the Meijer Superstore to the east.

According to Garry Petersen, senior economist for William-Lynn-James, Inc., roughly 360 people are expected to attend the groundbreaking, the largest celebration of its kind across the state.

"In honor of this road being dubbed 'the bridge to our future,' the Logansport Children's Choir will sing during the ceremony," Petersen said. Purdue University's "World's Largest Bass Drum" will also be on hand to give the celebration an air of grandeur and pageantry.

Twenty-six years ago forward thinking civic, business, county and city leaders from the communities of Fort Wayne, Huntington, Peru, Wabash, Logansport, Delphi, New Haven, Woodburn, Defiance, Watterville, Maumee, West Lafayette and Lafayette banded together to encourage the completion of a four-lane divided highway from Toledo, Ohio, to Lafayette called the Heartland Highway.

William-Lynn-James, Inc. was the mover and shaker behind the current project. Peterson said he was part of the group who worked with some of the original founders of the HHC, Inc., which has become the oldest cross county economic development corporation.

"The goal was to provide a link to bring jobs to the Wabash Valley," he explained. "We want the children of the families living there to be able to stay there as adults and make their homes there."

Petersen said the public is encouraged to attend the groundbreaking, which is promised to be a spectacular event.