Crestview grad new development director

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert County has a new economic development director and this one doesn’t have to do much to get up to speed on what the county offers to prospective clients.

That’s because Sarah (Moser) Smith grew up in the western part of the county around the Convoy area in the 1980s and mid-1990s.

“I’m from Van Wert, I grew up in Van Wert and I remember it as a kid,” Smith said Tuesday when she was introduced by Van Wert Mayor Don Farmer. “I’m happy to be home and I’m excited about what I remember, and to see what they still are doing, and what they are doing different, and what they want to do.”

Of course, the 1996 Crestview High School graduate last lived in the county 15 years ago, but those intervening years are what make her an asset to county economic development efforts. Smith, a former officer in the United States Air Force who married a fellow officer, was a premed student at the University of Wyoming when she decided to join the service.

“I wanted to fly more than I wanted to be a doctor, so I pursued becoming a pilot,” Smith said, noting that she spent most of her time in the Air Force in AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft, the planes that control an airborne battle using sophisticated radar and guidance systems.

Smith later earned a master’s degree in human relations at the University of Oklahoma and also managed to accumulate a family of five children — three of her husband’s from a previous marriage and two of their own. The children range from 11 years to 10 months.

The Smiths’ military careers have taken them to a number of places, including Italy, Korea, Las Vegas and Oklahoma City, something Smith says she feels could be an advantage in the global competition for economic development.

“It’s neat to see different areas and bring it home,” she said.

Smith’s husband, who remains in the Air Force and is an aerospace engineer who graduated from Georgia Tech, is currently commuting to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton to work in a research lab there, but plans to retire in a few years.

Although she said she knows the county has changed somewhat from when she lived here, Smith, the daughter of county farmer Gary Moser and his wife, Connie, a teacher at Crestview High School, did stress that economic development should be the focus for the entire county, not just the county seat.

“It’s not just the City of Van Wert, but Wren, Convoy, Middle Point, everywhere, is part of the county,” she noted, adding she will be getting acquainted with the county’s economic development stakeholders over the next few weeks and learning about local development efforts.

Smith said that while the megasite north of Van Wert is important, her top priority is the retention of existing businesses, since that’s where most new jobs are created.

“Retention is huge … the BR&E program … there’s a lot going on from Jobs Ohio,” she noted. “We going to be doing visits, going out and meeting the businesses, finding out what they want, what they want to see with Van Wert, what they need to grow.”

She also plans to quickly get up to speed because of the time lag from when her predecessor, Nancy Bowen, resigned to take a regional development job until she was hired.

“Everyone has ideas, and that’s what we have to sort through what works, what doesn’t work for Van Wert,” Smith said, but also added, “I don’t want people to think we want a business so badly that we’re going to take anything … we need to be a little selective, and we really need to get what works for us.”

While being a county native gives her added perspective about the county and what it offers, Mayor Farmer stressed that it was her ideas about economic development and not where she’s from that landed her the county development job.

The Wyoming and Oklahoma college grad said she was also excited about finally becoming a Buckeye.

“Always wanted to come back to The Ohio State University … be a Buckeye for sure … because everyone always asks ‘did you even go to Ohio State?'” Smith said with a smile. “And now I’m a part of Ohio State Extension, so I’m excited to do that.”