{"id":29149,"date":"2012-09-21T07:06:24","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T12:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=29149"},"modified":"2012-09-22T06:56:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-22T11:56:53","slug":"myers-unverferth-honored-for-development-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/09\/21\/myers-unverferth-honored-for-development-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Development group has annual dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Larry Unverferth (left) of Unverferth Manufacturing, accepts the Enterprise of the Year Award from Economic Development Group President Greg Berquist. (photos by Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ohio Department of Development Director Christiane Schmenk praised local development efforts as she helped the Van Wert County Economic Development Group celebrate during its annual dinner held Thursday night at Willow Bend Country Club.<\/p>\n

The event was sponsored by Van Wert County Hospital, Central Insurance Companies and Citizens National Bank.<\/p>\n

Schmenk received a warm round of applause after she spoke to the approximately 150 people who attended the event about Ohio Governor John Kasich\u2019s efforts to revamp her department, but it was nothing like the standing ovation given Darlene Myers when she received the \u201cVolunteer of the Year\u201d award from Jon Rhoades.<\/p>\n

Myers was shocked when her name was announced — especially surprising to her since she was in charge of organizing the dinner — and spoke with emotion about her gratitude at the recognition of her commitment to local economic development.<\/p>\n

Rhoades spoke glowingly about Myers, who essentially has been doing two jobs until a new economic development director is hired, which may be several months down the road.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Darlene Myers received the "Volunteer of the Year" Award.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur volunteer is someone who has taken on responsibilities that we really weren\u2019t expecting,\u201d Rhoades said of Myers, who has been running the local economic development office on her own most of the year, following Nancy Bowen\u2019s promotion in February and then Sarah Smith\u2019s early departure after only a brief time on the job.<\/p>\n

Myers also thanked those who \u201chave come to my rescue\u201d to assist with running the office, including Rhoades, who heads the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC), Van Wert Mayor Don Farmer, and the county commissioners.<\/p>\n

Also honored Thursday was Unverferth Manufacturing, a growing presence in the agricultural implement industry, as this year’s “Enterprise of the Year”. Delphos Safety-Service Director Greg Berquist, who is also president of the economic development group, noted that the company, which is located just outside Delphos and added 205,000 square feet to its plant there, employs more than 100 people at its facilities in Delphos, Kalida and Shell Rock, Iowa.<\/p>\n

Larry Unverferth accepted the award and thanked Delphos city and county officials for their assistance to the company\u2019s expansion efforts. \u201cWe are happy to receive this award because we have an excellent, excellent workforce, and without them this would not be possible,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the evening, local attorney Chuck Koch was recognized for his pro bono<\/em> legal work putting together purchase option contracts signed by those who own land in the 1,500-acre Jobs Ready Site megasite.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026my wife and I have made the commitment to leave this community better than when we first came here,\u201d said Koch, a Van Wert native who is also on the board of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center (NPAC). \u201cAnything we can do to make that happen, I\u2019m just happy to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her presentation, Schmenk talked about the partial privatization of the ODOD, and efforts to add regional partners to better serve the state\u2019s communities.<\/p>\n

Schmenk, who was formerly mayor of Marysville, toured the NPAC, ambulance maker Braun Industries, Vantage Career Center and a drive-by look at the megasite on Thursday afternoon. She praised local development efforts, noting: \u201cYou all have your act together; I think you have for awhile. We at the state, I think, are now getting our act together\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, County Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger and Mayor Farmer provided an update on local development in the past year, citing a number of important projects in the county that have been completed, or are ongoing.<\/p>\n

To end the evening, Berquist passed the gavel to Denise Frey, his successor as president of the local economic development group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Ohio Department of Development Director Christiane Schmenk praised local development efforts as she helped the Van Wert County Economic Development Group celebrate during its annual dinner held Thursday night at Willow Bend Country Club. The event was sponsored by Van Wert County Hospital, Central Insurance Companies and Citizens National Bank. Schmenk received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-05 06:12:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}