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Portage County Economic Development
Summit
October 2, 2008
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
NEOUCOM Conference Center
4209 State Route 44
Rootstown, Ohio 44272
Your Hosts:
Portage County Board of Commissioners
Portage County Department of Economic Development
Keep your eyes out for further details!!!
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Portage County Commissioners Hire New
Economic Development Director
William (Bill) J. Ulik started his new position
as Director of the Portage County Department of Economic Development
on March 17, 2008. Bill has already been very busy with adjusting to
his new position and meeting our partners in and around Portage
County.
Bill can be reached at 330-297-3470
or wulik@portageco.com.
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Joint Office of Economic Development Announces
Richland County as New Member
At a ceremonial signing on January
23, Richland County officially became the 10th member county of the
Joint Office of Economic Development (JOED) and NEOTEC. Pictured
are: (seated, left to right) Richland County Commissioners Gary Utt,
Ed Olson and Tim Wert, (standing, left to right) JOED Chairman and
Portage County Commissioner Chuck Keiper, Mahoning County
Commissioner John McNally, Wayne County Commissioner Cheryl Noah,
and Stark County Commissioners Richard Regula and Gayle Jackson.
 KENT,
OHIO, January 17, 2006 – The Northeast Ohio Joint Office of
Economic Development (JOED) has announced the addition of Richland
County to its regional economic development partnership. In a
ceremonial signing scheduled for January 23 at the Sheraton Suites
in Cuyahoga Falls, the commissioners of the nine current member
counties will officially welcome Richland County as a member of the
JOED and the Northeast Ohio Trade & Economic Consortium (NEOTEC).
NEOTEC is the private, nonprofit organization providing regional
economic development services on behalf of the JOED.
“The addition of Richland County to the JOED reflects our continued
commitment to the spirit of regional cooperation on which this
organization is founded,” said Chuck Keiper, JOED Chairman and
Portage County Commissioner. “The JOED already has a long and proud
association with the City of Mansfield, Richland County’s largest
city, which has administered a foreign-trade zone site at the
Mansfield-Lahm Airport since 1999. Now we can extend that
relationship to the entire county, as all 10 JOED counties unite in
the common goal of promoting Northeast Ohio and enhancing our
competitive advantages in the global marketplace,” Keiper said.
The JOED and NEOTEC were formed in 1996 by the executive of Summit
County and the commissioners of Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark
and Trumbull counties. Ashtabula became the seventh member county in
January 2002, and Wayne and Medina counties joined the organization
in January 2005.
“We are pleased to be a part of JOED and partner with NEOTEC on
regional economic development efforts,” said Richland County
Commissioner Tim Wert. “Richland County has made a major commitment
in funding and facilities to retrain our workforce in higher
technology skills. In order to grow our local businesses and attract
new business to the area, we believe a better trained workforce will
be pivotal in supporting that growth. Working through NEOTEC, we
will have a vehicle to highlight Richland County’s business
community and our better trained workforce on a global scale,” Wert
said.
Under its contract with the JOED, NEOTEC works as a regional force
for the 10 member counties, providing programs that support the
efforts of the counties’ local economic development organizations.
“The addition of Richland County enables NEOTEC to extend economic
development support to a larger regional area and to pool the
resources of 10 economically vibrant counties,” said Ron DeBarr,
President and CEO of NEOTEC. “We look forward to extending our
current association with the City of Mansfield to the entire county
of Richland in order to assist in their economic development
initiatives,” DeBarr said.
NEOTEC administers three organizations to implement its economic
development strategies for the region: Foreign-Trade Zone 181 to
promote international commerce, the International Trade Assistance
Center (ITAC) to provide export counseling assistance to area
businesses, and the Northeast Ohio Logistics Network to help improve
regional market access.
For more information, contact Ron DeBarr, President and CEO of
NEOTEC, at 330-672-4080 or via e-mail at
neotec@kent.edu.
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The Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic
Consortium (NEOTEC) is a regional economic development partnership
including Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning, Medina, Portage,
Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and Wayne counties, built to
improve market access through the development of the Northeast Ohio
Logistics Network and to promote international commerce through the
administration of Foreign Trade Zone 181.
SCORE Offers Free Business Counseling
The Akron Chapter of the SCORE Association is a non-profit
organization of retired and active executives and business owners that
provides free counseling, mentoring and workshops to entrepreneurs and
existing businesses in the four-county area of Portage, Summit, Medina
and Wayne.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2005, the chapter has counseled
over 16,000 clients since its
inception. The relationship can last for a few sessions or a number of
years. Counselors honor a strict code of ethics that ensures client
confidentiality and professional conduct.
The collective expertise of SCORE’s men and women counselors covers a
multitude of subjects from cash management, advertising, sales and
marketing, to engineering, human resources, export/import, production
and telecommunications, advises Chapter Chairman Ron Stallings.
Akron SCORE can be contacted by calling 330-379-3163, by email at
www.akronscore.org, or by fax
at 330-379-3164.
(See the Small Business page for
additional resources.)
Lean Manufacturing Emphasized at the Portage Manufacturing Alliance's
Networking Luncheon
The Portage Manufacturing Alliance met
this past month at Maplewood Career Center to hear Fletcher
Birmingham, President of Summit Business-Consulting, Inc. of Hudson.
Fletcher is a specialist in operational excellence and workforce
development. He has worked in manufacturing for over 20 years for
companies such as Hamilton Sundstrand, Lockheed Martin and Scott
Fetzer. His consulting clients include both large and small
manufacturing and service organizations. In addition to consulting,
Fletcher is Director and founder of the Operations and Plant Managers
Association, OPMA. Formed in 2001, the OPMA consists of manufacturing
and related businesses located in Northeast Ohio. OPMA members share a
library of books and videotapes and receive discounts on publications.
 Fletcher
talked to our area manufacturers about the need to improve
productivity above the rising rate of health care costs, which can be
as high as 30% per year. He also emphasized the need for those in the
industry to focus on a leaner sense of manufacturing in order to
maintain the increase. His main message to the group was that “as your
company goes through a process of leaner manufacturing, it must
encompass more than just your factory/line workers, it must also
include your office procedures and administration as well.” He stated
that this will assist with employee buy-in.
Pictured: Sy Thompson, Portage County Office of Economic Development;
Sam Mishler, Automated Packaging Systems; Fletcher Birmingham; Becky
Zuver, Inland Packaging, and Will Wilke, Automation Plastics Corp.
NOTICE:
The Ohio Enterprise Zone law changed on June
9, 2004.
The new law permits exemptions up to 15 years with the
affected school board approval. The new law also establishes mandatory
performance levels for job creation and retention and provides
mandatory claw back language that must be included in all enterprise
zone agreements. The sample agreement and EZ Application on the
Enterprise Zones page includes the
new language that must be used.
Portage County's
New Foreign Trade Zone
Nets 2 New Companies
L'Oreal's new
650,000 sq. ft. distribution center in Streetsboro will add 378 jobs
to the county's job base. Recreational Products new manufacturing and
distribution center will add 47 new jobs.
Portage County's First Foreign Trade
Zones - NEOTEC
(Northeast Ohio Trade & Economic Consortium announced that the
Foreign-Trade Zones Board in Washington, D.C. has approved its
application to establish two foreign-trade zone sites in Portage
County, the county's first foreign-trade zone designation.
June 2004 Streetsboro,
Ohio The two sites are among 9 new sites approved within
Foreign-Trade Zone(FTZ) 181 with the recent application, including
sites in Mahoning, Stark, Summit and Trumbull Counties. FTZ 181,
which is administered by NEOTEC, now encompasses 32 total sites and
nearly 6,000 acres throughout Northeast Ohio, and is among the top 10
of more than 260 Foreign-trade zones in the U.S. in terms of
activity. Streetsboro's FTZ sites include the Interstate Commerce
Center and the Frost Road Commerce Center.
The main objective of the Foreign-Trade
Zone program is the creation and retention of jobs through increased
export activity. Companies use foreign trade zones to maintain the
cost competitiveness of their U.S. based operations vis-a-vis their
foreign-based competitors. Zone status provides an opportunity to
reduce certain operating costs associated with a U.S. location that
are avoided when operating from a foreign site.
The FTZ 181 program in Northeast Ohio
has enjoyed significant growth since 2001, expanding from 9 companies
within zone boundaries to a projected 34 companies in 2005. The
growth during this time period represents $215 million in new capital
investment with the creation and retention of 3,315 jobs - an
acceptable performance considering Northeast Ohio and the nation were
in the depths of a recession during most of this period.
The growth was a combination of
attracting new companies and the expansion of existing companies.
With the economy recovering, the FTZ 181 program is positioned to make
an even greater impact on job growth in Northeast Ohio. For more
information about FTZ 181, contact NEOTEC at 330-672-4080 or
neotec@kent.edu.
Portage County Solid Waste
District
Business & Industry Recycling
Program - The commercial program offers recycling collection
services for all businesses in Portage County. We have a monthly
container rental program for your convenience. Contact Director
at
330-678-8808 Fax: 330-678-9405 E-mail:
rportagecounty@neo.rr.com.
Web Site:
www.recycle.4t.com
JumpStart, Inc.
funds high-growth businesses and ideas, works with their founders to
develop the businesses into venture-ready entities and simultaneously
celebrates Northeast Ohio's early-stage company successes.
If you have a business that's poised
for rapid growth, or an innovation that you'd like to advance,
JunpStart might be the right place to go. JumpStart has designed a
structured investing process, whether the "investment" sought by a
client is an investment of time and resources through JumpStart's
Business Development Services, an investment of cash sought through
JumpStart Investments, or both.
There is also a pace setters program
called JumpStart Pace Setters. They are entrepreneurs who exemplify
the leadership, courage, energy and drive necessary to grow a business
in Northeast Ohio. Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready will interview a
JunpStart Pace Setter every month to learn what sets them apart form
others.
And there are also a wide variety of
JumpStart Exchange Events and networking at which you can meet with
other local entrepreneurs, business owners, and community leaders. For
more information on JumpStart visit
www.jumpstartinc.org
or call Thom Ruhe, Chief Marketing Officer at 216-363-3400.
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