Fisher lays out plan to create hubs in Valley

By Ed Runyan

One official discussed the loss of 750 jobs caused by a slow-moving state agency.

CHAMPION — Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher outlined a broad plan for revitalizing Ohio’s economy that promotes the state’s strengths, keeps and brings talented people here, and invigorates its communities.

But as complex as such a plan may be, one idea — creating hubs of innovation and opportunity — clicked with folks attending Fisher’s presentation without needing a lot of explanation.

The session was Friday at Kent State University Trumbull Campus for officials from Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties.

Among those who liked the hubs idea was Hunter Morrison, director of campus planning and community partnerships for Youngstown State University.

The hubs are communities where bright people want to live and work because of cultural and workplace opportunities, Fisher said.

The Ohio Department of Development, of which Fisher is director, would like to establish one or more such hubs in each of 12 districts in the state. The local district takes in Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties.

Each hub will have a “knowledge center,” such as a university, within its geographical area that feeds the business and cultural community, Fisher said.

Fisher and Morrison said they both have sons who have chosen to live in certain areas of the United States specifically because they like the community — not because of a certain job.

In such an area, a person can feel safe knowing that if something happens to their job, they can find another one without having to relocate, Fisher said.

Fisher said the state will probably try to launch the idea by establishing one hub that can serve as a model, possibly even in the Mahoning-Trumbull-Ashtabula area.

Morrison believes Youngstown is a logical place for such a hub since the city was a model for the hub idea. Morrison said Youngstown’s hub concept arose from the City of Youngstown/YSU collaborative Youngstown 2010 plan.

The plan outlines what should be done in terms of growth and change to 127 neighborhoods in Youngstown. The plan encourages turning blighted areas into park space, abandoned industrial sites into wetlands and improve the overall quality of life in the city.

In a one-mile area in downtown Youngstown, there is a concentration of students at Youngstown State University, interns at St. Elizabeth Health Center and innovators in the Taft Technology Business Incubator.

The state already has invested in bridges and cultural attractions such as Powers and Stambaugh auditoriums.

Now the area needs a little more state investment in apartments or downtown streets to make it truly attractive to such people, Morrison said.

Fisher said the hub idea is one of the more exciting areas of the strategic plan the state began to unveil a couple weeks ago following a year’s worth of study.

The plan includes five main goals:

UPromoting Ohio for new capital investment and tourism. Companies need to have a reason to change their perceptions about Ohio in order to put the state on its “short list” of places where they would consider expanding, Fisher said.

ULinking Ohio’s inventive past with an innovative future.

UCultivating top talent through a program that reintroduces people to the state who have some connection to it, such as those who were born here or who have parents or in-laws here.

UInvesting in the region’s assets, such as its cities.

UFocusing on the state’s “customers” by operating at the “speed of business,” not the “speed of government.”

One example was given of how the state falls short in terms of speed.

Joseph W. Mayernick, director of the Ashtabula County Growth Partnership economic development office, said Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regulations were a reason why an Ashtabula-based company built a $40 million manufacturing facility in Aberdeen, S.D., employing 750 people, rather than in Ashtabula.

Molded Fiber Glass Companies found that it took only 35 days to receive approval to build in South Dakota, while the process in Ohio would have taken 18 to 24 months, Mayernick said.

The new facility — which produces blades for electricity-producing wind turbines — began operation in May.

runyan@vindy.com