Port Authority Board Recognizes Economic Development Week

The Board of the Clinton County Port Authority met last week and continued the recognition offered by its partner organizations in recognizing May 9-13 as “Economic Development Week.”

Sharing information with the Board, Executive Director Daniel Evers said that when it is undertaken successfully, economic development is a team effort. He added, “In our community, several organizations work together to facilitate economic development.”

As evidenced later in staff reports, there are many examples of cooperation on economic development initiatives throughout the county. The Ohio Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Miami Regionals, funded locally by the Port Authority, continue outreach into the community. Evers said, “Five existing businesses are enjoying improved performance and have made connections with legal counsel, insurance and other important assistance.” The SBDC has facilitated $640,000 in loans for community businesses so far this year and has initiated relationships with four prospective start-up businesses. The program has been active in Clinton County for just short of two years and has helped 41 clients to create 91 jobs.

Ruth Brindle reported that the Clinton County Workforce Collaborative presented survey results at a recent Economic Network Alliance meeting – a meeting co-hosted by the Wilmington-Clinton County Chamber of Commerce and the Clinton County Regional Planning Commission. Highlighting more community collaboration in economic development, Brindle said this group would be continuing its outreach to gather workforce barrier data throughout the summer and would be the featured program at the Chamber’s Annual Luncheon coming up in June.

“We also were recognized as a ‘Friend of Education' for our work on Workforce issues by the Southern Ohio Educational Service Center (SOESC) at its awards night recently,” said Brindle, adding that plans for a local Career Exploration Fair are in the works for later this year.

“Recognizing Economic Development Week allows us to speak to the work of so many organizations in the county, the region and the state, and to reinforce the collaboration and multiple dimensions of our local economic development network,” said Evers.

In other business, the Board members approved leasing building space to a potential tenant proposing to initiate a new business at the airport. “While we see both general aviation (GA) and corporate aircraft traffic at the airport today, initiation of an organized FBO – fixed base operator – business will formalize the services most GA and corporate operators expect when arriving at an airport,” said Evers. This has the potential to increase the draw to the airport, as the operator intentionally markets services to this target aviation sector, he added.

Additonal tenant repairs and improvements included roof repairs to two buildings as well as continuing the significant renovations to Building E in preparation for that tenant.
“Having executed this Lease, we are working diligently to complete these renovations,” said Beth Huber, CCPA Associate Director. The projects in progress include improvements in HVAC and lighting, as well as the installation of a specific crane system to facilitate the operations of the tenant.

The Board approved the renewal of its Aviation Insurance and addressed other items of business and heard reports from staff, its broker and LGSTX Services, Inc. - the airport operations team - representatives.

The Clinton County Port Authority Board meets at 9 a.m. on the second Thursday of every month at the Wilmington Air Park.