Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
News
January 11, 2016 01:00 AM

Plastics companies active in partnership that seeks to pump up Ashtabula's economy

Jay Miller
Crain's Cleveland Business
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Business and civic leaders in Ashtabula County, Ohio, are charting a new, more focused effort to boost the county's economy and labor force.

    Through the Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County, a group of 60 business, public, educational and philanthropic partners, they have identified the county's most pressing economic dilemmas and are rolling up their sleeves to plot a three-year course of action to make some headway.

    While unemployment in this county of 100,000 people has declined, at 5.6 percent in November, it is still well above Cuyahoga (3.9 percent), Geauga (3 percent) and Lake (3.3 percent) counties to the east, though typical of neighbors to the south and east.

    At a meeting Dec. 15 at the Spire Institute in Geneva that was attended by more than 100 civic leaders, Don Iannone, the partnership's executive director, and economist James Trutko opened a campaign to kickstart a civic effort to bring that rate down.

    “You're losing talent,” Trutko said as he started a data-heavy slideshow on the state of the county economy. “I'm worried that the downward lines will continue without an action plan.”

    The county's economic problems are not unique, but this leadership group is going the extra mile to analyze them and plot a course forward. The members of the growth partnership have developed a strategic plan and have created a dashboard — an online, visual economic scoreboard — to help leaders set goals and keep an eye on their progress.

    The planning work began in August 2014 with the hiring of Iannone, a former director of the Economic Development Center at Cleveland State University and an economic development consultant with a national practice.

    The key issues, Iannone and Trutko explained, are the need to offset a loss of employment in key sectors, the decline in the number of businesses in the county and the slow pace of new business formation.

    “We have a tremendous number of organizations that support economic and community development,” said Scott Becker, the president of the board of directors of the nonprofit economic development organization, after the presentation.

    “What we don't have is a countywide focus on a couple of key items to move the needle in the right direction.”

    Becker is president and CEO of Chromaflo Technologies Corp., one of the county's largest manufacturers, which makes colorants and pigment dispersal systems for the architectural and industrial applications.

    The county has a diversified economic base. It's led by manufacturing, which includes firms like Chromaflo, Molded Fiber Glass Co. and Kennametal Inc. Manufacturing represents about 31% of the county's economic output. Government, health care and other social services combined generate about 21% of local output. Within manufacturing, the chemical and plastics industries provide the anchor.

    Trutko said the county can build on its plastics and chemicals base, but it also needs to bolster its underdeveloped service sector. The focus, though, should be on businesses with geographically diverse customer bases.

    “You want (new) businesses that have a regional or national market that will bring dollars into your county,” he said. “And you have to look at extending the reach” of local businesses.

    Although the county unemployment rate has declined, Trutko said the rebuilding of the workforce hasn't kept pace with the region or the rest of the country. Data gathered by the growth partnership show the county has been losing between 350 and 500 people from the labor force annually. Some stopped looking for work or couldn't find a job, while some found work outside the county.

    “The whole workforce/talent issue is critical,” Iannone said. “We need to be attracting skilled people to Ashtabula.”

    Iannone believes the county's low cost of living and small-town quality of life near metropolitan areas like Cleveland and Buffalo, as well as the recreational opportunities along Lake Erie, can be selling points.

    As important, Iannone said, was building up the skills of kids coming out of the local high schools so that, if they aren't going on to college, they can meet the needs of local manufacturers, some of whom are facing workforce shortages. But the Ashtabula workforce is slightly less educated than the average Ohio workforce.

    “The school systems have made progress, but we need more,” he said.

    Temporary solution

    We've managed to bring in some top talent,” he said. “But more fundamentally, we have a problem attracting just quality mid-level and even operational people.

    “I have 30 temporaries in my building right now,” he said. “I shouldn't have any. All these other manufacturers who are here have the same problem.”

    While it will continue to work to attract new businesses to the county, the strategic plan emphasizes helping existing businesses grow, since those companies typically account for nearly 60% of new jobs.

    Ken Johnson, general manager of Greatwave Communications, the local telephone and Internet service company, said in a later telephone interview that keeping businesses alive and local can be difficult. Many businesses were started in the 20 years after World War II, and those entrepreneurs are ready for retirement and can't count on keeping them in the family and local.

    “Kids grow up and look at the economic realities and go, ‘This isn't what I want to do,' ” Johnson said. “So the owner gets older and he doesn't have anybody to hand the business off to, and all too often those businesses close.”

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Industry sees Biden bioplastics goal as serious signal
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Biden sets US goal to replace 90% of plastics with biomaterials
    2
    Industry sees Biden bioplastics goal as serious signal
    3
    Report urges treaty to regulate plastics like pharmaceuticals, limit growth
    4
    One injured in explosion at Ineos cumene plant in Texas
    5
    Engineering resin prices close the first quarter with a drop
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified