Trumbull planning director nears retirement

WARREN — “When I came here in 1981, there was a national recession and the county was really hurting,” said Alan Knapp, director of the Trumbull County Planning Commission.

“I didn’t cause either one,” he added with a laugh.

Twenty-seven years later, a month before he is set to retire, Knapp finds himself looking at an eerily similar situation, with the country in recession and the local economy against the ropes because of job losses at local businesses.

In 1981, the local problem was the devastation brought on by steel mill closings. In 2008, the threat comes primarily from the decline of the domestic auto industry — especially Delphi Packard and General Motors.

Read the full story in Monday’s Vindicator and on vindy.com