OHIO ECONOMY Professor: Recovery in Valley lags state

The chamber is well on its way to helping create 6,000 jobs in five years.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
LIBERTY -- Smaller communities such as the Mahoning Valley are being left behind by Ohio's economic recovery, an expert said.
These communities have been abandoned by corporations as mergers and consolidations have swept through American industries in recent years, said Ned Hill, professor of economic development at Cleveland State University.
He spoke Wednesday at the Regional Chamber's economic forecast breakfast at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex.
"How do we reload these economies? How do we reload Lima? How do we reload Mansfield? How do we reload the Valley?" he asked.
Ohio's large cities -- Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati -- are faring much better, he said.
While the death rate for companies in Ohio is at the national average, the state's birth rate for new companies lags, Hill said.
Communities such as the Mahoning Valley must realize that there are no big corporations that are going to drop a large, new manufacturing plant into the area to upgrade the economy, he said. Most growth will come from supporting current companies and local entrepreneurs, he said.
"You are going to have to do it yourself," he said.
To that end, the Valley is making progress, said the program's second speaker, Reid Dulberger, executive vice president of the chamber.
The chamber just completed the second year of a five-year economic development program called Pride in Progress, and it is well on the way to meeting most of the objectives, Dulberger said. This program follows two previous five-year campaigns.
Area businesses have committed $3 million to fund the new campaign.
Job creation and retention is one of the four parts of the campaign.
The chamber, which handles economic development for Mahoning and Trumbull counties, set a goal of helping with projects that would create 6,000 jobs and invest $875 million in the community. In the first two years, the chamber worked with companies to create 2,755 jobs and $328.6 million in investments.
The second focus was on influencing public policy.
The chamber wants the Valley to receive $50 million in new state and federal funds and for its representatives to receive 20 appointments to important boards. So far, the Valley has received $18.1 million in funds and 12 appointments.
The next objective was to create the Steel to Scholars Program. With a federal grant, the program to honor outstanding area schools has been created and a plan that markets those schools is in place.
Lastly, the chamber wants to rebuild the community's image.
The goal is to place 250 news stories in regional and national media outlets about positive happenings in the Valley. So far, there have been 86.
Better cooperation
Beyond the numbers, Dulberger said the Valley's political and community leaders are cooperating much better now than before the economic development campaigns started. Area officials react much better when a crisis develops, such as the threats to close the General Motors' Lordstown complex and the air base in Vienna, he said.
Now, it's expected that the Valley will present a unified front when it faces an economic challenge, he said. That is happening with the current threat of major cutbacks at Delphi Packard Electric Systems, he said.
The chamber organized a simulcast about the Delphi situation recently on all three local television stations. Dulberger said the chamber is preparing another initiative but isn't ready to release the details.
shilling@vindy.com