Commissioners, mayor talk with BDC reps

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert County Board of Commissioners again held a meeting to discuss economic development, this time talking with representatives of the Van Wert Business Development Corporation (BDC).

George Brooks and Andy Czajkowski, representing the BDC, met with the commissioners, while Van Wert Mayor Jerry Mazur joined them later for a discussion on the future structure of economic development in the county.

The commissioners and Mazur also announced selections for a seven-person steering/controlling committee that would oversee creation of a budget for the combined city-county economic development entity and also hire a new economic development director.

The six members selected include Commissioner Todd Wolfrum, Mazur, Van Wert High School Principal Bob Priest, Stuart Wyatt of Ag Credit, Jimmy “Rabbit” Bonifas of The Kenn-Feld Group, Sticky Rammel of KAM Manufacturing. Those six members are expected to meet in the next week or so and jointly select a seventh, tie-breaking member.

Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger said plans are to come up with a job description and then find an experienced director with a track record of success.

“We’re talking about someone who has done this and has done it well in the past,” Lichtensteiger noted. “Not to kick anybody in the shins, but not an academic, not somebody who’s just learning, not somebody who wants to make their resume look good.”

Both the city and county are providing funding for the new entity. The county will provide 30 percent of conveyance fee revenues, which would generate somewhere between $90,000 and $100,000 annually, while the city would match county funding from its Hotel-Motel Tax Fund, with approval from Van Wert City Council.

In addition to the steering/controlling committee, the commissioners and Mazur have talked about having a resource committee made up of local bankers, realtors, and business and community leaders in a number of areas.

That committee would work with a new economic development director to provide a variety of services and expertise to prospective employers considering locating a business in the county.

Brooks and Czajkowski said the BDC is offering its support for efforts to combine the city and county economic development entities, with Czajkowski recommending that the structure of the new organization be as simple as possible.

The BDC, which is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, can also provide expertise in that area, since the commissioners and Mazur have talked about having the new ED organization be a not-for-profit entity.

However, while the BDC is more geared toward the purchase of land for future development, as well as providing various funding to companies looking to locate here, the commissioners and Mazur are also concerned about having enough workers for an incoming business — especially for a large company that would locate in the 1,600-acre megasite northeast of Van Wert.

Several local companies are currently having trouble finding enough qualified workers to fill open positions, Wolfrum noted, while a new company coming in now would likely force an existing business to close for lack of workers.

Workforce concerns is one reason Mazur and the commissioners are working with local schools to develop more career-related training to ensure that local students are aware of good-paying local jobs and receive training needed to fill those jobs.

Wolfrum and others have noted in the past that, increasingly, college is not the solution for a large number of local students, citing low college graduation rates and the fact that those who do graduate often have considerable student debt to pay back.

More meetings are planned in the future to further develop the structure of a new city-county economic development entity.