by Isabella Carwile | Sep 12, 2025 | Business Advisory Council, Community, Events, Jobs, PCED Office, Shoutout, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release September 12, 2025
PAULDING — The Paulding County Business Advisory Council (BAC) recently convened to advance a series of initiatives aimed at building business-education partnerships and expanding opportunities for students throughout the county.
One of the key developments was the Council’s decision to support a Junior High business type exposure event hosted at Antwerp Local School. The event will be designed to introduce younger students to local businesses and business concepts, and introduce career pathways. Paulding Exempted Village School and Wayne Trace Local School will look at what they currently do with junior high-age students and determine if this is a potential fit for them in the future as well.
The BAC also agreed to move forward with planning of the High School Business & Career Showcase this spring. This year’s showcase will emphasize soft skills and hiring readiness, with students suggested to arrive “dressed to impress” and prepared with resumes. The event will continue to utilize YouScience data to guide student engagement, helping align individual aptitudes with real-world career opportunities.
Noting additional opportunities for skilled trades training, Economic Development Director Tim Copsey shared ongoing discussions with a regional group offering floor installation training. In collaboration with Paulding High School, the program may be hosted at the Opportunity Center building, allowing students from all county schools to participate.
Students from Antwerp, Paulding, and Wayne Trace High Schools will also attend the Build Your Future event in Van Wert on September 16. This marks the first time Antwerp and Paulding students will participate, following last year’s weather-related cancellation. The event offers hands-on career exploration in construction, manufacturing, healthcare, and related industries.
Additional highlights from the meeting included:
- Wayne Trace High School launched new opportunities in engineering (22 students enrolled) and videography (26 students), expanding hands-on learning in high-demand fields.
- Paulding High School has brought back its after-school welding program in partnership with FFA instructor Staci Miller and Northwest State Community College. In addition, they reported 20 students enrolled in the Panthers for Career program and a new opportunity for students to earn drone flying credentials.
- Antwerp High School has four seniors participating in the Archer Career Day Advantage program and continues to emphasize robotics programming for younger students. Mrs. Litzenberg’s 6th-grade class will be participating in a business exploration program in the 4th quarter this year.
Vantage Career Center Superintendent Rick Turner shared the excitement of a partnership that includes Vantage Career Center, Latty Village, Paulding Area Foundation, and Paulding County Economic Development. The collaboration will allow career center students to build a new home in Latty—the first career center constructed home in Paulding County in many years. This hands-on project provides real-world experience and will make a community impact.
Turner also let the group know that in order to better support student education decision-making, Vantage Career Center has moved its Sophomore Student Visit Day to November, giving students and families more time to ask questions and explore options before spring enrollment.
Western Buckeye Educational Service Center Superintendent Missy McClurg presented information about upcoming STEM and YouScience training opportunities for both students and educators in the county. These sessions are designed to enhance business-education collaboration and equip participants with tools and knowledge to better align experiences with workforce needs.
McClurg led a thoughtful discussion on the future of the Teacher Boot Camp, a program that takes educators into local business and industry facilities. Although funding for the initiative was not included in the recent Ohio budget, the BAC is exploring local scholarships and alternative funding sources to ensure its continuation.
As the school year progresses, the BAC will continue to evaluate new programming and partnerships to support student success and workforce development for all local business employment needs.
by Isabella Carwile | Aug 15, 2025 | Business Advisory Council, Business Expansion, Community, Events, Funding, Jobs, PCED Office, Shoutout, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release August 15, 2025
PAULDING — This week, the Paulding County Business Advisory Council (BAC) Steering Committee was hosted at the Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) office, bringing together school officials, not-for-profit organizations, and business leaders from across the county to discuss ongoing initiatives and new opportunities for collaboration.
Tim Copsey, Director of Paulding County Economic Development, opened the meeting, congratulating the group for being honored this year as a 3-Star (out of 4) award-winning Educational Service Center (ESC) BAC. The award follows last year’s 2-Star award. “Receiving an improved rating like this means the Ohio Education Association sees exactly what we already believe in Paulding County. Our businesses and schools have always worked together, but now that we document exactly how, and can show data for improved collaboration, it makes us all better, and they see it,” Copsey shared.
One of the best collaborative tools available in the past was Teacher Boot Camp. There was a weeklong schedule developed where educators could visit, tour, and meet local businesses and leaders, and understand how school curriculum could relate to real-world practice. The Teacher Boot Camp funding did not make it into the new Ohio Biennium budget this year. The BAC brainstormed ideas as to how they might be able to provide a smaller tour package, or a different version of boot camp next summer, if the legislature does not find another pocket for funding. The team will continue to explore options, as everyone believes this is a valid piece to align education instruction with real-world workforce needs.
The discussion then turned to businesses going into the educational facilities. One innovative idea discussed was the use of developing a QR code that would invite and allow working parents to promote their business when the curriculum matched up with their employment. If math turned to fractions, perhaps an engineer may come in, or if government class turned to state history, perhaps a local politician. This may open up a whole new opportunity for community engagement and career exploration.
The committee also revisited strategies for strengthening internship programs. Discussion took place in regard to determining if this could be a tool to build deeper connections between education and local businesses. This led to additional conversation about the new definition of apprenticeships and internships and how there may be a disconnect in understanding how they could be a benefit to all. There will be more research and discussion in this realm.
Other key pieces of discussion included:
- Is there an opportunity to rejuvenate the Paulding County Business Weekly podcast with the help of media class students?
- Antwerp Local School (ALS) brought up the desire to have a Junior High “career exploration” type day hosted at the school. The idea was met with good enthusiasm, especially with Wayne Trace Local School representatives, who also expressed interest in collaborating on dates and logistics to make the event a reality.
- ALS also shared their excitement about working on a community art gallery by putting student artwork out into the community, and shared insight on how they will be doing a fundraising project in the community with students maintaining a small business.
The next BAC meeting will take place in mid-September at the OSU Extension Building in Paulding. Anyone with an interest in participating in future meetings, please contact the PCED office at 419-399-8295.
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 5, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, Events, New Business, PCED Office, Property Development, Shoutout
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release May 5, 2025
PAULDING—111 Beauty Lounge has now opened and will hold its open house on Saturday, May 17th. The new owner, Megan Kauser, has purchased the former Styles Unlimited business at 221 W. Wayne Street. The salon has been a cornerstone of the community since 1986. The new ownership will strive to continue great services well into the future.
111 Beauty Lounge is a full-service salon committed to providing exceptional beauty care in the region. Focusing on creating a welcoming atmosphere and high-quality services, the salon is proud to continue serving the community as a trusted destination for self-care and creative flair.
Kauser brings over a decade of experience as a licensed cosmetologist. Having honed her craft at Salon 104 in Paulding, she is known for her expertise in pedicures, manicures, nail art, and her certification in eyelash extensions. She has been performing this work and building clientele for six years.
“I’m thrilled to take on this new chapter and honored to carry forward the legacy of Styles Unlimited,” said Kauser. “Our goal at 111 Beauty Lounge is to create a welcoming and relaxing space where clients can feel their best. We look forward to serving the Paulding County community with personalized, high-quality beauty services.”
Styles Unlimited was originally established by Konnie Gerber, who dedicated over 39 years to her craft as a beautician, creating countless, unforgettable moments for her clients. Kauser looks forward to continuing this tradition of excellence while introducing her services with her unique touch.
111 Beauty Lounge will also offer a variety of beauty treatments designed to meet the needs of individuals and families across the area. For more information or
by Isabella Carwile | Apr 22, 2025 | Community, Paulding County Business Weekly Radio Broadcast, Shoutout
Our Paulding County Business Weekly guest this week is Misti Klopfenstein. This young entrepreneur has established a unique business in Paulding County. Learn how Misti has transformed part of the family farm into Misti Meadows Flowers in Haviland, Ohio. In this episode, Misti helps us navigate the you-pick opportunity of fresh, growing flowers or the delivery of fresh flowers for your home or to a special someone. Thank you to the Paulding Eagles Aerie 2405 for sponsoring this program! You can tune in on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., or listen online by clicking here! Paulding County Business Weekly is also available in podcast form through Apple, Google & Spotify. #pauldingcountystrong
