Issue 1 favors local economy, Valley leaders say

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Local business, academic and political leaders urged Mahoning Valley residents to vote in favor of state Issue 1, which will allow Ohio to borrow $700 million to extend funding for the Third Frontier program for another four years, through 2016.

The issue is on the May 4 primary ballot.

The program began in 2005 when voters approved a ballot issue permitting the state to borrow $500 million for high-tech companies and research in areas including advanced and alternative energy and biomedicine. That program expires in June 2012. The May ballot issue would extend that to June 2016.

The money helped create more than 570 companies and more than 48,000 jobs, according to the Ohio Department of Development.

“The Third Frontier has had its fingerprints all over local economic projects,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, at a meeting Monday at the Semple Building on West Federal Street in downtown Youngstown.

Companies in Mahoning County and Youngstown State University have received about $3.5 million from the fund, said Katie Sabatino, a state Department of Development spokeswoman. Trumbull and Columbiana counties haven’t received any Third Frontier money, she said.

One of the Mahoning County companies receiving Third Frontier money is Syncro Medical Innovations Inc. of Youngstown, a medical-technology company. It received $350,000 to develop a specialized feeding tube.

“This program is for real,” Gary Wakeford, the company’s president, said about the Third Frontier program. “We need to get behind it.

Money from the Third Frontier program was “instrumental” in getting Syncro to locate in Youngstown, he said.

“If we play our cards right, Syncro will be one of many medical-technology companies to relocate to Youngstown,” Wakeford said.

The Valley recently has received great news on the manufacturing front with the announcements of a $650 million expansion of V&M Star and a third shift coming in June to the Lordstown General Motors complex, Ryan said.

“But if we don’t diversify our economy, we’ll continue to lose young people” who will leave the Valley and the state for other job opportunities, he said.

YSU received a $2.1 million Center for Excellence in Advanced Materials Analyses.

The Third Frontier “is a program YSU strongly supports,” said Martin Abraham, dean of its College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.