43
Chamber’s Salute to Business honors 5
By Sean Barron
BOARDMAN
If you ask Ron Klingle, Arno Hill, Bob Hannon, Erin Mellinger and Mark Cole what keeps their businesses and organizations running, the first thing they likely will tell you is the engine that generates their success is those who work for them.
“My employees are more deserving of this than I am,” Klingle said while accepting an award for his business’s contributions to and investments in the Mahoning Valley.
Klingle, chairman and chief executive officer of Warren-based Avalon Holdings Corp., was one of five business entrepreneurs and community leaders who received such awards during Thursday’s 2016 Salute to Business breakfast at Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center, 7440 South Ave.
The other recipients were Hill, mayor of Lordstown; Hannon, president of United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley; Erin Mellinger, owner of Fitness Together; and Mark Cole, an agent with American National Insurance Co./Mark Cole Agency.
The two-hour event’s main sponsors were Home Savings and Loan, Armstrong Group of Companies, the Western Reserve Building & Construction Trades Council and PNC Bank.
Klingle, who also is chairman of the Western Reserve Port Authority’s board of directors, praised his employees for helping to build his 18-year-old business, which owns Avalon Golf and Country Club in Howland, and provides waste-management services to commercial, municipal and industrial customers.
“Our Valley’s future is no longer bleak,” he told an audience of several hundred. “Because of you, we’re a different Valley than we were 35 years ago.”
Hill, who worked 31 years for Delphi Packard before becoming mayor, said his city “is a good mix of industry and agriculture” and added he hopes to see a greater influx of small businesses and housing.
To that end, the mayor cited the opening in June of the 225,000-square-foot, $100 million Matalco Inc. plant, an aluminum-billet, recycling and processing business.
Hannon explained that United Way continues to evolve and grow, with hopes of making its presence felt in all of Youngstown’s elementary schools while continuing to offer wrap-around services to youngsters in crisis.
“I wanted to create good fitness instruction in the Mahoning Valley,” said Mellinger, who recalled having opened her first center in 2008 in Canfield with three employees, all of whom still work for her.
Her primary goals are to keep growing and to open new facilities, she continued, adding she also was thankful to God for her success.
“We have more and more small businesses popping up all over the place. When you see a small business open, stop in and shake a hand,” said Cole, who is chairman of the chamber’s ambassador committee and past president of the Austintown Rotary.
Cole also touted his staff, saying his business thrives on helping people while stressing the importance of making connections with others.
After the awards, Guy Coviello, the chamber’s vice president of government affairs, helped unveil a life-size, 3-D bobblehead of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which was made by applying multiple 3-D printing techniques with metal, sand and plastic.
Other speakers were Bo Pelini, Youngstown State University head coach; Dr. Paul Sracic, chairman of YSU’s Department of Politics and International Relations; Tom Humphries, the chamber’s president and CEO; and Atty. Martha Bushey, who serves on the chamber’s board of directors.