V&M Star project was an effort for which many earned credit

The Vindicator’s May 19 ed- itorial, “President’s idea to get out of Washington is a good one,” was balanced and very well outlined how President Obama’s speech here focused on politicians, while giving scant recognition to V&M, Vallourec (parent company), V&M company executives, and the entire V&M family.

A project of this magnitude requires the skill and commitment of many. I’m full of admiration and respect for the vision and tremendous efforts of V&M’s project team and the Vallourec sponsors who worked tirelessly, provided capital funds, and brought life to this project. I also admire the skill and experience of V&M STAR employees whose performance is recognized as an important element to expand in this location. Finally, I appreciate the efforts and support of our suppliers, the community, our civic organizations and public officials.

It is obvious that the plant is being built to serve a market opportunity, to improve the company’s competitive advantage and is not in response to a government incentive. This was confirmed by Vallourec’s Chairman Philippe Crouzet in his remarks subsequent to President Obama’s speech. “You don’t make such a big decision based on just a (government) subsidy.”

Now that the project is announced, we all need focus on making it a success. It is easy to forget that many folks in government and civic organizations worked hard to expedite the approval processes and to make this site “shovel ready” with hopes that Vallourec would make this project a reality in the Mahoning Valley. For over a year, accompanied by my accurate refrain, “no decision has been made,” they kept working toward reaching that goal.

Some facts:

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, Gov. Ted Strickland, Congressman Tim Ryan, and Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams have all appeared before the International Trade Commission on behalf of the efforts of the company and other domestic pipe and tube producers to achieve a level playing field in the face of a surge of unfairly traded products from China.

The Ohio Department of Development and the City of Youngstown’s Office of Economic Development have been very proactive in their efforts with the company every step of the way.

Tom Humphries, Walt Good and the Regional Chamber staff have supported the company at every turn, and were instrumental in coordinating many meetings in the community, particularly with public officials.

Girard Mayor Jim Melfi and Mayor Williams and their respective city councils worked to develop the Brier Hill Industrial Park that establishes the single taxing district requested by the company to facilitate both its operations and create a contiguous municipal site ready for industrial expansion. U.S. Rep. Ryan also worked to facilitate these meetings

Gov. Strickland and Rep. Ryan worked together to achieve assignment of funds to the Brier Hill Industrial Park. Mayor Williams went to Washington DC to speak to U.S. DOT about expediting this allocation.

The Ohio EPA and the Ohio PUCO have been very cooperative in scheduling the review and approval of our environmental and utility applications.

Clearly the list of those who contributed could go on.

While it is true that these people were just doing their jobs, I’m very happy they approached it with such vigor. The project is significantly advanced as a result of these initiatives.

So let’s not forget to give credit where credit is due.

This and other projects need everyone’s energy to move economic development forward. Let us focus the community now on making the collaborative efforts that benefited V&M’s project a model that can be used to bring many other projects to the Valley.

Meanwhile, V&M’s team will be focused on completing this world class endeavor and fulfilling the vision.

Roger Lindgren, Youngstown

The writer is the retired former president of V&M STAR .