by Isabella Carwile | Jan 17, 2025 | Community, Jobs, Membership, PCED Office, Property Development, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release January 17, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Economic Development Board recently hosted their first meeting of 2025. The business part of the meeting was entirely devoted to the forward progression and strategic plan development for the group. The short agenda meeting was long but impactful.
Prior to the business discussion, a presentation was made by Premier Bank. Local Paulding branch CEO Nicole Robinson, Business Loan Officer Danielle Fowler and VP of Treasury Sales Doug Blackwood shared the full line of business banking options and accounts available with Premier Bank. They then answered questions about the upcoming purchase of Premier by the WesBanco Bank. Although WesBanco is already established in Ohio, this would be their northernmost branch. Board members and the banking team discussed opportunities for potential growth in the county.
Business then turned to strategic planning. The board last did an in-depth dive into the Paulding County economic development strategic plan in 2022. The two-year plan has guided the office in a positive direction over that time. Since then, many things have changed in economic development, within the board and around the county.
The January 2025 meeting was dedicated to reviewing the many goals of that previous plan. Director Tim Copsey shared the goals and results with the board. Based on the reported results, the board is now tasked with developing an immediate plan for 2025 and early 2026 and a 2-3 year plan for the future. This generated great conversation as it was discussed what might be more beneficial to now add to the plan, and what certainly needs to come off. An example that may be added to the list, that wasn’t even noted in 2022, was the great need for residential housing. The adhoc strategic plan committee will convene again before the next official board meeting in March to put together a final plan to present to the full board for approval.
by Isabella Carwile | Dec 18, 2024 | Business Expansion, Community, PCED Office, Property Development, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release
PAULDING – The quarterly Paulding County zoning inspectors meeting took place on Wednesday at the Paulding County Economic Development Office. This group morphed out of quarterly county mayor’s meetings and has developed as a way to bridge communication gaps and further effort in zoning consistency and collaboration amongst the county.
The main agenda item was to start collecting the list of zoning fees for each municipality and township. These lists will be compiled into a spreadsheet that will allow a comparison of costs and the variation of fees. Those in attendance shared their table of fees which started a comparison discussion. The group determined that if the zoning fee tables were submitted to the courthouse, they could be found on the recorder’s website.
Sarah McCabe, with the county auditor’s office, shared that they will be sharing year end data for building permit summaries. These would be regarding commercial, residential, agriculture, mobile homes, and destroyed mobile home permits issued in 2024.
Brian Harder, with the county engineer’s office, shared that since the county GIS system was implemented visits to the office have diminished greatly. It was questioned about how many zoning maps are on file with the engineering office. Harder reported that less than 50% of the maps are on file. The group will work with the office to increase this amount.
General conversation turned to the county health department and the septic verification program. Recently the county has started to lay out the plan for verifying septic systems around the county are operating correctly and efficiently. More information about this state-required program will be forthcoming from the department.
Tim Copsey, county economic development director offered information about the county land bank funds from the State of Ohio. Earlier this week, the Ohio Department of Development moved forward with committing the $500,000 allocation to the county and asked for final paperwork to be submitted by January 6. Estee Blair, with Maumee Valley Planning Organization, will submit this information for the county. Demolition bids will then be sent out for the 42 submitted properties around the county.
Participants this quarter represented Washington Township, Carryall Township, Crane Township, Paulding Village, Cecil Village, the county auditor office, the county engineer office, and economic development. The group agreed to meet again on March 19th, 2025.
by Isabella Carwile | Dec 17, 2024 | Business Expansion, Community, Events, New Business, Paulding County Business Weekly Radio Broadcast, Property Development, Shoutout
This week, we dive into a new endeavor in Paulding County. We talk with board members Doug Schlatter, Jane Nice, and Dave Nice about the new Reclaimed Living Sober Transitional House and how it will benefit Paulding County. Big thank you to OhioMeansJobs for sponsoring this program. You can tune in on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., or listen online at www.my1027.org/paulding-county-business-weekly/. Paulding County Business Weekly is also available in podcast form through Apple, Google & Spotify. #pauldingcountystrong
by Isabella Carwile | Dec 11, 2024 | Business Expansion, Community, Events, Jobs, PCED Office, Property Development, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release
PAULDING– The Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) office hosted the fourth quarter Business Advisory Council (BAC) Committee meeting this week. The meeting was held in the newly remodeled OSU Extension building on the campus of the Paulding County Fairgrounds.
Twenty-one business leaders and educators introduced themselves so participants understood where and how each attendee fits into Paulding County’s growth. The event was moderated by PCED Director Tim Copsey. Copsey shared how the council is stronger with participation and how it can benefit school, student, and business relationships around the county, for the future.
Guests heard a summary of recent BAC Steering Committee activity. The committee meets quarterly for months just prior to full council meetings. This committee digs deeper into the details of how to develop collaboration between businesses and educators and helps guide future development within the BAC. For the 2024-25 school year BAC template submission to the Ohio Education Association, 28 programs were identified and reported that were taking place between businesses and educators in the county. This committee is now reviewing each of these programs individually to see if they remain viable, are relevant to business today, and if we can emulate them at other schools or businesses within the county. The review will continue throughout the year.
As they started out in the past, this group was mentored by other high-performing BAC groups around the state. The Ottawa County BAC has offered an invite for the Paulding County members to join in one of their upcoming meetings to see how they run their BAC and if anything could be learned for the future. The group will look at the date and see if there might be an opportunity to participate in a collaborative meeting soon.
Discussion also took place regarding connecting with last year’s high school graduates. It would be of interest to the BAC to be able to share open employment opportunities, from around the county, with graduates and with current college students. This would allow students to see employment opportunities, within their field of study, as they determine their employment future.
One highlighted area, for possible improvement from the committee, is with the OhioMeansJobs employment portal. It was noted that this seems cumbersome for students. A meeting has been scheduled to see if there may be an opportunity to walk through this portal with students and OMJ state leadership to see how training may help, or if there needs to be some tweaking to the portal itself. Results will be shared with the committee at a future meeting.
All three county high schools addressed the group sharing new and exciting things taking place with each of them. Superintendent Rick Turner shared updates from Vantage Career Center and Northwest State Community College Van Wert campus Dean of Students Jon Tomlinson shared information in regard to the college.
Copsey closed out the meeting sharing information about potential opportunities that have taken place in other nearby counties that the BAC should consider. This included a business breakfast at Patrick Henry High School and an elementary business expo at Holgate Elementary. Also shared were dates of April 2 for the Paulding County Business, College, and Career Showcase and June 2-5 & 9 for the 2025 Paulding County Teacher Bootcamp. The boot camp is provided by the State of Ohio to offer local high school administrators and educators the opportunity go out to tour and meet local business professionals while receiving continuing college credit.
The PC BAC will convene again in February with a Steering Committee meeting and a full membership meeting in March
by Isabella Carwile | Nov 19, 2024 | Business Expansion, Community, Jobs, Paulding County Business Weekly Radio Broadcast, Property Development, Workforce
Listen this week to the Paulding County Business Weekly podcast, where we hear from Solid Ground owner Brian Shuherk, who shares about the Solid Ground business and all the exciting benefits that they can provide. Irrigation, landscaping, landscape drawings, and snow removal just to name a few. Brian shares how this business started in the trunk of a car and has developed into a regional service business. Thank you to program sponsor, OhioMeansJobs. You can tune in on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., or Click Here to Listen Online! Paulding County Business Weekly is also available in podcast form through Apple, Google & Spotify. #pauldingcountystrong
by Isabella Carwile | Sep 11, 2024 | Business Expansion, Community, For Sale, Property Development
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release September 11, 2024
PAULDING – The Paulding County Land Reutilization Committee held their monthly meeting at the Paulding County Commissioners office on September 11 and opened the meeting with a moment of silence.
Matt Wagner, with the county EPA consulting firm Tetra Tech was asked to first give updates on brownfield projects around the county. Wagner was very happy to announce that the former Liberty Fuel gas station property, located at 504 E. River Street in Antwerp, has received the final approval and clean bill of health. Tetra Tech has applied to the State of Ohio for the “No Further Action” letter for the property.
The former Grizzley Brake factory property, located at 710 W. Caroline Street in Paulding, has had the entire perimeter fence repaired and foliage has been mowed back about 40 feet within the fence perimeter. This allows the discussion to move forward with the current site owner, Cummins, and the county land bank committee for further remediation. There was no update in regard to the former Stokely factory site across the road from Grizzley.
The Land Bank has acquired the empty Patriot Rail mill building, located in Antwerp at 103 Cleveland Street. This will allow the building to be removed in the brownfield remediation program. The Paulding Village owned Winkle building, located at 105 N. Main Street in Paulding is scheduled to have asbestos remediation.
All brownfield and residential/commercial site remediation projects are on hold until the Ohio Department of Development issues approvals in regard to the applications submitted in late 2023 and early 2024. The hope is that news will be shared by the end of September so projects can begin to move forward.
The committee was given a brief update by Estee Blair about the 37 projects she has held up as she also waits on approvals from the Ohio Department of Development.
The discussion then turned to current owned properties and what the future plan for them might be. There will be signage put on the former theatre lot to indicate an intent to sell. There are four residential properties located in Scott, Ohio. At this time the committee agreed to hold on to them as they determine if grant funding might be available through the Welcome Home Ohio grant for help in making these available for future growth in the community.
There are four additional properties around the county waiting on various pieces of legal legislation or approvals for them to move forward with remediation. The committee did go into executive session to discuss the potential purchase of another property with no action taken following. The committee will meet again on October 9 in the commissioner chambers.
