The area could use some good news, and it got it

The area could use some good news, and it got it

Sometimes, the only thing to do is smile.

And so it is today, in the wake of Monday’s announcement that V&M Star Steel will start next month on a $650 million pipe mill in Youngstown.

There is no way to put a bad face on this news. In the short term, it will mean hundreds of jobs in the construction trades. That alone will provide a boost in the local economy. It will provide a shot in the arm for Youngstown’s income tax receipts — not enough to justify any spending spree, but a welcome departure from shrinking receipts.

There will be holes to dig, materials to deliver utility lines to lay and steel to erect. It’s the largest single construction project in the area for as long as most people can remember.

And after the roads and rail lines are built, the building is erected, the heavy equipment and computers installed, the facility will provide new, well paying jobs to 350 people. They will be producing oil-country tubular goods, a product that has a bright future as long as there is a need to extract energy from the ground. And as much as everyone talks about new, green sources of power, we’ll be running on fossil fuels for some time to come.

But those are only the tangible benefits of this project. The intangibles are just as important for an area that more often finds itself in the national news as a loser than as a winner.

When directors of Vallourec, the parent company of V&M that is located near Paris, chose Youngstown over possible alternative sites in Texas, Oklahoma and Brazil, they may not have been trying to send a message, but send one they did.

Hurdles cleared

This area overcame problems of politics and geography to put together a proposal that met Vallourec’s approval.

The land on which the plant will be built straddle Youngstown and Girard, and V&M had no interest in walking a tightrope between two jurisdictions, After a rocky start, Girard and Youngstown officials recognized that everyone would lose if they didn’t work together, That willingness to overcome parochial interests should set the tone for future projects that cross city, township or county lines.

There were more than enough elected officials at the V&M announcement Monday, and all share some of the credit. Among them were Mayor Jay Williams of Youngstown, Mayor Jim Melfi of Girard, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th, and Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher. Each did his part, and without all those parts, this project may have been built elsewhere.

Special note should be made, however, of the extra effort of Mayor Williams in November. Williams had been invited to attend the German Marshall Funds “Comparative Domestic Policy Program” in Germany in late October, with his travel expenses paid for by the fund. He reasoned that as long as he was on the continent, a detour to Vallourec’s offices outside Paris might help. Apparently it did.

As the kudos are being handed out, Williams gets to go to the head of the line.