Valley deserves to be seen and heard in state capital

Just two days after Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams publicly opined that the Mahoning Valley isn't on state government's radar screen in Columbus, an economic development expert told the Regional Chamber's economic forecast breakfast Wednesday that this region is being left behind by Ohio's recovery. Superimpose those two observations and what you have are the problem and the challenge that have long confronted this area.
Williams, who took office this month after serving as Youngstown's Community Development Agency director, had an eye-opening experience during a recent visit to Columbus to attend a meeting of new mayors sponsored by Gov. Bob Taft's office.
"While everyone from the governor's office was very nice and very polite, Youngstown was almost mentioned as an afterthought, and I got the feeling that if I hadn't been sitting there, they would have neglected to mention it altogether," the mayor told the annual meeting of the general policy board of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. His reference to "Youngstown" was not meant to be city specific. Indeed, unlike his predecessor, George M. McKelvey, who rarely attended Eastgate COG meetings, Williams said he plans to be an active participant. Eastgate COG is the planning agency for Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
"I want them [state government officials] to be talking about us not as an afterthought, but because we're relevant," he said.
He uses the word relevant a lot. Four years ago, in talking about "Youngstown 2010," the city's blueprint for revitalization and growth, Williams posed this rhetorical question, "Is Youngstown relevant?" His aim was to get people thinking about the city in the context of the region.
Second-tier status
Likewise, his insistence that the Valley is relevant is designed to let decision-makers in Columbus know that Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties are no longer content to settle for second-tier status.
As Ned Hill, professor of economic development at Cleveland State University, told the Regional Chamber gathering, smaller regions like the Valley have been abandoned by corporations as mergers and consolidations have swept through American industries in recent years.
Hill posed this question: "How do we reload these economies? ... How do we reload the Valley?" His answer: "You are going to have to do it yourself."
While it is up to the region to develop a clear job-retention and job-creation strategy, the state's participation in various initiatives is essential.
Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati wouldn't be riding the economic development wave had the state not pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into those areas over a great many years.
Mayor Williams is right: The Mahoning Valley must be on state government's radar screen.