By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The St. Joseph River Watershed Initiative is looking for a new leader; Jane Loomis, who had served as the initiative’s executive director since late in 2002, retired over the summer.

“It’s time for the next leader to come in and take over,” she said. “I took (the initiative) where I could take it.”

Two hours of driving every day between work and home was getting tiresome, she said. “We have a little mini farm at home, and the driving every day, besides all the work, just seemed like it was a lot.”

The initiative is a nonprofit partnership formed in 1996 to improve water quality in the St. Joseph River watershed, which covers more than 694,000 acres in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

The initiative’s board of directors will meet in December to finalize plans to eventually replace Loomis, said Greg Lake, interim executive director. At an executive committee meeting last week, the decision was made to first fill a position of a part-time project or program manager, and not search for an executive director for about a year, Lake said.

“The goal is to ultimately have two people, plus administrative support,” Lake said. “The program manager would be a lot like a city controller. They would be responsible for filing reports, working on the budget and other finances and pretty much doing the day-to-day things.

“The executive director would be the face of the initiative. They would be working on community outreach, fundraising and have more of a big-picture approach.”

Loomis replaced Matt Nelson, who was a part-time director for about two years.

“I was on the board of directors then, and we really took a giant step forward under Matt,” she said. “I think we took more steps forward while I was here.”

The initiative has increased its profile over the last few years, she said. “We updated the strategic plan for the St. Joseph watershed, and we completed a plan for the Cedar Creek watershed,” she said. “We’ve revamped our website and we have water quality data available online through an accessible database.”

Interviews for the part-time program or project manager position probably won’t begin until after the holidays, Lake said. Officials hope to have the position filled in January. There is still a lot for the initiative to do, Loomis added.

“Fundraising is always important, and especially now since it’s a lot tougher to get grants,” she said. “There are a lot more organizations and a lot less money.

“It’s also important for the initiative to help the rest of the smaller watersheds in the St. Joseph watershed. They need to help the locals get things locally.”