Ryan calls energy incubator lab opening in Warren ‘thrilling’

October 18, 2018 at 7:40p.m.

WARREN

The congressman who secured funding to get the Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center started and TBEIC’s board chairman both admitted they were never sure they would see this day.

Thursday was the day TBEIC’s new shared resources lab was unveiled to the public — a clear sign that the downtown business incubator has arrived.

“To see it come to this point is really thrilling,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th. “This was a pipe dream.”

But it’s a dream that came true, thanks to chairman John Pogue and TBEIC vice president Rick Stockburger, Ryan said.

Ryan secured the $2.2 million from the Department of Energy in 2010 to renovate the building TBEIC now occupies on Courthouse Square. He expected to use additional earmarks to continue to develop it.

“Then earmarks went away,” the congressman said.

Funding for lab equipment came from a $248,000 Appalatian Regional Commission grant and matching money from the Ohio Board of Regents.

The incubator’s traditional funding sources, such as grants and community donors, paid for the consultants who put the lab together.

Ryan noted that the Brookings Institute has said as incubator tenants graduate to their own facility, they typically locate within five miles of the incubator.

“That’s why I wanted it in downtown Warren,” he said.