Seeing the promise of a new age

Seeing the promise of a new age

As a retired engineer orig- inally from Youngstown, I would like to say that the informative and enthusiastic Y.O.U.N.G. Conference at the downtown Covelli Centre was an inspiration for the entire region and a herald of better times ahead.

The bountiful Marcellus and Utica shale rock natural gas formations lying under eastern Ohio and five nearby states hold tremendous promise for our nation’s current and future energy requirements, and need to be worked with expeditious resolve.

Although some timid leaders in Washington may show lack of vision, and Red China still aggressively deigns to dump their drilling pipe here, and some misguided, misinformed protestors (manipulated by the underlying red roots of the extreme green movement) would have us stand upon our energy oxygen hose, we nonetheless need must move forward. We have the excellent drilling pipe from local Valley steel manufacturers, the USA has cutting-edge technology and know-how to do the job safely and responsibly, and our work force and the economy are on the threshold of a “new frontier”.

As I looked over the Covelli Center site, I could not help but reflect upon the historical significance that on that very ground in 1840 stood the Phoenix Iron Furnace, and through the Covelli building spot the long gone Mahoning Canal once flowed.

Our early citizens worked and supported their families way back in those forgotten beginning generations of the Valley. And now today a providential new light has dawned there, one that if we follow, will help carry us forward another 200 years — figuratively like the “Phoenix rising from the ashes.” Think about it.

R.D. Reid, P.E., Ravenna