by Isabella Carwile | Jul 9, 2025 | Uncategorized
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release July 9, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Land Bank committee was updated on a plethora of projects taking place around the county this week, many of which are nearing completion.
Abby White, representing Maumee Valley Planning Organization (MVPO), began by sharing that the remediation of the Land Bank-owned Paulding trailer court, located at 802 North Main Street, has been completed. Dangler Excavating, of Paulding, has removed the dilapidated trailers, cement pads, and streets associated with the property and backfilled the open lot with topsoil. With the project complete, the Land Bank will move forward and sell the property to the neighboring property owners, the Paulding Exempted Village School.
Dangler Excavating moved their equipment south to 119 South Main Street in Paulding. This demolition is the former Caring & Sharing food pantry building, owned by the Paulding County Carnegie Library. The future plan is to build a new community center on the open lot.
The next completed project is the former church building located at 201 North Williams Street in Paulding. The building was removed by Advance Demolition, McComb, Ohio. The church structure, basement, and surrounding sidewalks were removed and backfilled with clay soil. The clay was heavily compacted as the finished site will be purchased by the Paulding VFW Post 587 for the future site of the Paulding Veterans Memorial. Fundraising continues for the beautifully designed monument.
White then shared updates on many next-round commercial and residential projects ready to take place in villages and townships around the county. Many easily noticed demolitions will take place around Antwerp, Grover Hill, Haviland, and Melrose, along with environmental testing being completed in Antwerp, Grover Hill, Oakwood, Paulding, and Payne areas.
On the Brownfield Program side of blight clean-up, Matt Wagner, representing the county EPA consulting team, Tetra Tech, shared good news as well. The remediation of the former Mercer Landmark Grain Mill in Antwerp has been completed. It will provide additional parking and turnaround room for grain-hauling semi-trucks and hopper wagons at the Mercer Landmark facility. With the completion of the project, the property will be sold to the Patriot Railroad.
Wagner was eager to share that the new Ohio budget has allowed another $200 million in funding for continued brownfield and blight cleanup in 2026 & 2027. The committee will now be tasked with putting together a new list of potential sites to continue clean-up around the county. This will allow the preparation of sites for future residential and commercial development.
Wagner then reminded the committee that the Ohio Department of Development awarded Paulding County $85,074 in funding for asbestos removal in the Paulding Village-owned former Winkle Chevrolet building, located on the square. The building has asbestos-wrapped pipes and flooring that will be remediated to make the building safer to work in and allow a seamless future sale if the opportunity arises.
Wagner finished by providing brief environmental updates on the former JJ Ross gas station in Grover Hill and the former Stokely pond property in Paulding.
Paulding County Economic Development Director Tim Copsey noted that zoning changes have been completed on a Land Bank-owned property within the Village of Cecil. This will allow the group to move forward with selling a designated parcel to Patriot Railroad for a potential future transload site.
Copsey also provided the committee with information about the former Grizzley property. It is now under the EPA consultant oversight of T&M Associates in Cleveland. They will continue to collect data with an end goal of providing a clean property to the Land Bank in the future.
In addition, Copsey shared that a recent blighted residential property, purchased in Paulding at 621 Sugar Street, is currently being mowed and maintained until demolition takes place later this year.
Committee discussion then turned to the Welcome Home Ohio (WHO) grant funding. With the help of MVPO, the county has been awarded $300,000 to use for residential blight rehabilitation projects over the next 24 months. The current Land Bank financial balance is $63,904.08, but it was decided that with the influx of funds expected from the previously discussed property sales, the committee will begin looking for one or two residential home rehabilitation projects to purchase and target using these grant funds. Additional discussion will now begin with realtors, financial groups, and contractors to develop a plan to use the funds accordingly.
by Isabella Carwile | Jun 5, 2025 | Business Advisory Council, Business Expansion, Community, Events, PCED Office, Shoutout, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release June 5, 2025
LATTY – The Paulding County Business Advisory Council (BAC) gathered for their second quarter meeting last week. It was the first meeting since the school year ended. This second quarter meeting is always scheduled in conjunction with Teacher Boot Camp to allow teachers to join in the meeting. The hope is that with more educators being introduced to local business leaders, more collaboration will take place in the future.
The group met at the Latty Mercer Landmark facility. Their newly expanded facility and state-of-the-art conference room allow enough space to host all participants. The meeting brought in 17 guests for the meeting.
Introductions were made before the group was updated about the current Teacher Boot Camp agenda. Mercer Landmark was the 12th business stop of 13 scheduled during the three-day tour. Tours during the week were provided at all three county schools, Paragon Tempered Glass, PC Hospital, North American Stamping, H.E. Orr Company, Robert’s Manufacturing, virtual tour at Cooper Farms, Baughman Tile, Vantage Career Center, Mercer Landmark, and Haviland Plastics.
Monday opened the camp at the Western Buckeye ESC office and included 10 different business/social service group presentations on site. The Paulding County Commissioners, PC Engineer, Limitless/PC Workshop, PC Sheriff Department, First Financial Bank, OSU Extension, OhioMeansJobs, Wessler Engineering, and Foundations Behavioral all presented on day one. In addition, Ashland University had a representative introduce information to get all the teachers signed up so they could receive CEU credit for participating in the camp.
Moving past the boot camp discussion, Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) Director Tim Copsey facilitated discussion about the Business & Industry Career Day Expo held in April. Great thoughts were shared by the group as to how the intent of the day needs to be more clearly identified. Are we looking at this event as a career hiring event, or just an informational day for students to learn more about employment opportunities in the county? It was decided that more discussion will need to take place to determine that answer. However, new thoughts were shared in regard to resume building and exchange, soft skill preparation for discussion, eye contact and communication, attire, and overall presentation. This could provide better interaction between the schools and local business leaders.
The discussion then turned to the Vantage Career Center Adult CNA healthcare program. Now that high school students can be included in this adult instruction program, the county is looking at ways to include the students who have the desire to attend this training during the summer. This would allow employment opportunities in areas with local healthcare providers during the summer months as well as the school year. Adult Director Angie Fahy provided scheduling updates with the group and then how they can potentially fund the student fees. The group is excited to see this program move forward for the first time, to see how it can be built upon in the future.
Information was provided for the county fair that started this week. Businesses, colleges, and schools have the opportunity to set up a booth in the business buildings at the fair and promote themselves. It’s a great opportunity to market or interact with the general public. The interest in these spaces is up, and more businesses than ever before have reached out, so space is limited.
The attendees from the local schools and colleges each provided updates as to their interaction with local businesses. Indiana Tech and Northwest State both shared upcoming meeting and opportunity dates, as did representatives from the Wayne Trace HS STEAM Center.
The next meeting will be held on August 13 at the PCED office. For more information about the Paulding County Business Advisory Council or how to get in contact with the group, please reach out to Jessica Stechschulte at the economic development office at 419-399-8295 or office@pced.net.
by Isabella Carwile | May 15, 2025 | Business Advisory Council, Community, Jobs, PCED Office, Shoutout, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release May 15, 2025
PAULDING – Representatives from the villages of Antwerp, Cecil, Grover Hill, Haviland, Oakwood, and Payne gathered for the Q2 Paulding County Mayors Association meeting this week at the Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) office.
Following introductions, the group was introduced to Nikki Reese, the new Economic Development Director from the Maumee Valley Planning Organization (MVPO). Reese is replacing Will Burns at the office, who recently retired. Reese shared that she grew up in the West Unity area of northwest Ohio before attending Wittenberg University. Her studies led her to the Darke County area, where she engaged in watershed studies and grant writing. The opportunity to come back to Northwest Ohio, in a similar role, enticed her to this position. She shared the low-to-moderate income studies with each village and expressed how individual studies can be provided with the help of MVPO for future designated projects.
Hans Rosebrock, with the Mannik & Smith Group, introduced himself and shared information about all the resources they have and can provide for the villages. With the many arms of engineering, environmental studies, surveying, planning, and project implementation, their team can be a full-service provider to small communities.
Village of Payne Mayor Lora Lyons then provided a brief presentation to the group about how the village is using some Chat GPT features in letter writing, project planning, and graphic design. She shared some other features, including the development of new digital file documents from older existing hard copy documents, and they weren’t sure where they originated. This led to an interactive conversation about the possibilities of taking multiple village zoning codes and overlaying them with each other for a county comparison. This could help guide further discussion on getting closer to comparable zoning around the county. This could also be done with township zoning. With the growing use of artificial intelligence, all in attendance agreed this would probably not be the last discussion on this topic.
PCED Director Tim Copsey updated each attending community on their current open land bank projects and where the land bank is in bidding out the new round two projects. Copsey also shared that if there is a list of homes in each community that the Land Bank should be aware of for purchase and rehabilitation that each village should provide a list of those homes to the Land Bank committee.
by Isabella Carwile | May 15, 2025 | Business Advisory Council, Community, Events, Jobs, PCED Office, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release May 15, 2025
PAULDING –The Paulding County Economic Development Office hosted a Business Advisory Council (BAC) Steering Committee Meeting this month. The state mandated committee consists of bringing together a diverse group of local leaders, educators, and business professionals to collaborate on initiatives connecting educators and county students with local businesses and career opportunities.
The committee reflected on the recent Business and Industry Expo event. Participants shared success stories and brainstormed ways to make next year’s event even more impactful for students and employers.
The discussion took some great discussion twists and turns as participants collaborated on new thoughts and shared potential ideas for new ways to connect educators with business leaders and encouraged a deeper commitment to workforce development and community growth.
Recognizing the importance of early career engagement, attendees expressed new strategy thoughts to involve younger students and foster more hands-on learning experiences. A key discussion emphasized that introducing students to career opportunities at an earlier age can broaden their mindset, helping students realize the many diverse career paths available within the county.
Discussions then turned to the implementation and scheduling for the upcoming Teacher Bootcamp, a dynamic program designed to help educators earn their CEU hours while gaining firsthand knowledge about Paulding County businesses and local industries through guided business tours. Spots are still available for anyone in the northwest Ohio region hoping for CEU credit through Ashland University.
Another point of focus was the planning of the STNA Summer Program. Conversations centered on overcoming challenges in securing a certified instructor for the STNA training. Angie Fahy, Adult Education Director at Vantage Career Center, shared thoughts on available funding opportunities that could help cover the costs of STNA classes for students. A key component in this would be finding as much scholarship money as possible to overcome any financial barriers. All information discussed will be explored further to identify the best option to help launch the STNA Summer Program this summer.
The full BAC meeting will be held on June 5 at 1:00 PM at the Mercer Landmark conference room located at 14170 State Route 613 in Paulding, Ohio. For more information, please contact Jessica Stechschulte at 419-399-8295 or Office@pced.net.
by Isabella Carwile | May 14, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, PCED Office, Property Development
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release May 14, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Land Reutilization Committee (Land Bank) gathered for their May meeting recently. The group worked through a full agenda of open project updates, current project planning, and discussed what future projects could look like.
Matt Wagner, with Tetra Tech Environmental group, shared updates on several brownfield-funded projects:
- The former grain mill building in Antwerp, located on the Patriot Railroad-owned site, has been removed. The last piece will be site finish work to make space for the grain wagon and grain truck parking.
- The former JJ Ross gas station building, located in Grover Hill, has been removed. The site has been backfilled with stone, however, soil sampling has indicated petroleum in some soil, so further testing will be required. Once the data results are reviewed, it will help determine how much additional soil will still need to be removed. The remaining pieces of the cement parking lot will also be removed during final site completion.
- The Paulding Village owned Stokely pond property remediation is temporarily on hold awaiting results in regard to pond depth. The weather has played havoc with getting a boat out on the water to determine water depth. Knowing the depth will help the excavation team develop and understand a required work plan.
- The Paulding Village-owned utility building, at the corner of Perry and Main Streets, is awaiting state funding approval for asbestos remediation to make it a clean building and an easier discussion for its future.
The former Grizzley Brake facility property is now being remediated by its owners own environmental team, T&M Associates. Owner Arvin Environmental has recently allowed their environmental team on site to draw soil samples on the residential properties, located on the east side of the property. Results are expected soon and will help determine next steps. Additional testing will continue to take place inside the 33 acre fenced area.
Maumee Valley Planning Organization partner Abby White then shared updates in regard to the Residential/Commercial Revitalization Program. Some of the bigger projects are in process or are already in the queue for demolition:
- The removal of the 11 trailers, on the Land Bank owned property located at the north end of Main Street in Paulding, has begun. Dangler Excavation started removing trailers and the cement pads they sit on. Once this project completes the surface will be levelled, filled with topsoil and planted to grass until future development is determined.
- Following the trailer court project, Dangler will move forward with remediation at the Paulding County Library Annex building at 119 S. Main Street in Paulding; former car wash building, located at 316 S. Main Street in Antwerp; and the tile barn building located at 204 Harrmann Road in Antwerp, near the school.
- The fencing is around the perimeter of the former Faith Alive church building located at 220 N. Williams Street in Paulding. The clearing of this site will make room for the future Paulding VFW veterans’ memorial. Guest John Daeger attended, representing the VFW, and shared concerns about verifying compacting of backfill soil. This is critical for the setting of some of the granite memorial pillars. White will confirm compaction with the demolition team, Advance Demolition of McClure, Ohio, which was awarded the bid for this project.
Discussion from White then turned to estimating remaining funds from the $500,000 county allocation and identifying a next round of potential projects.
The committee then discussed additional grant funds. Indication from the Ohio Department of Development is that Paulding County has been awarded $300,000 of Welcome Home Ohio (WHO) grant funds. Unlike the demolition funding, these funds must be used to rehabilitate properties or residential structures. As the legal documentation is completed, the committee discussed several opportunities for current Land Bank-owned properties and potential new purchases to identify the best use of the funds. No decisions were made at this time.
The next meeting will take place on June 11 at 8:30 am in the commissioner’s office.
