Ribbon cut Friday on Jobs Ready Site

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert County’s near miss in 2006 in getting a Honda plant that eventually located in Indiana was the catalyst for what, nine years later, has become the newest tool in the county’s economic development work belt.

“Hello, and welcome, to this day of celebration and dedication,” Van Wert City Development Director Cindy Leis told a gathering of stakeholders that included former Van Wert economic development director Nancy Bowen, three former county commissioners, as well as current Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger, City Council President Ken Mengerink, Ohio Representative Tony Burkley and other state officials and their representatives, during an event held at the site off Marsh Road north of Van Wert.

“Today marks the beginning of a very new phase for Van Wert megasite as an Ohio Jobs Ready site,” Leis said. “Thanks to so many before me that have made today happen.”

Bowen noted after the event that the community collaboration needed to come up with a site and make a bid for a new Honda plant in 2006 energized local residents to continue the process, even after the original site was taken off the market.

Leis also praised Bowen for her work that eventually culminated in the certification of the current economic development site on April 3 of this year, while also thanking Van Wert Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming for helping complete the paperwork on the project.

Literally thousands of hours of work and planning have now culminated in a new, fully-certified 1,600-acre Jobs Ready Site that local economic development officials and stakeholders feel will become the site of a major manufacturing facility sometime in the future.

In addition to Leis, Van Wert Mayor Don Farmer, Van Wert Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Susan Munroe and Doug Born, vice president of the Regional Growth Partnership, a state-operated regional economic development group, spoke about the importance of the new megasite, the largest such site in Ohio and one of only two ED megasites in the state.

Mayor Farmer talked about the efforts needed to make Friday’s event a reality, while also touting the regional implications of the now certified megasite.

Noting his opinion that the site should be rebranded as the Ohio Northwest Region Supersite, the mayor said the site would likely impact a larger area than just Van Wert city and county.

“We have learned over and over again — and again today — we are a region of at least a 45-mile radius from Van Wert that will benefit from this development we see here today,” Mayor Farmer told those gathered.

The mayor also talked about how, after nine years of hard work to build a railroad spur and provide water and electricity to the site, the land is now ready to fulfill its intended function.

“This is not the end, this is only the beginning,” Mayor Farmer said. “How we got here, and the work we put in to get the infrastructure here, led us to other things.”

The mayor also praised former commissioners Gary Adams, Clair Dudgeon and Harold Merkle for their efforts in making the megasite a reality, as well as the Ridge and Hoaglin township trustees for their efforts in approving pre-annexation agreements for the site.

He also lauded former Ohio Department of Development Director Christina Schmenk, who he said was instrumental in keeping the project going when things bogged down over a mandate to install a natural gas line to the site.

With the city unable to come up with the funds for such a project, Mayor Farmer and Fleming met with Schmenk to discuss the possibility of dropping that requirement in order to get the megasite project back on track.

Schmenk agreed and the project, which until then had only about a 20 percent chance of moving forward, again became viable — and eventually fully certified.

Munroe said the newly certified megasite is a “true silver bullet” for northwest Ohio and the state, while Born, whose group will assist in marketing the site, congratulated those responsible for creating what he called “tremendous, tremendous asset”, adding that the site was “truly special” and a tribute to organizers’ perseverance and hard work.

“This site represents Van Wert’s opportunity to compete for very large projects on a national and global scale,” Born noted, adding that such projects will be ones that change entire communities, as well as the “landscape of northwest Ohio”.