LEIPSIC – A new CIC director, the annual Red Rose award and a review
of a successful past year in growth including the county’s largest ever
capital investment project were all on the agenda Thursday during the
36th Annual Putnam County Community Improvement Corporation meeting.
Amy
Sealts was introduced as the current CIC Director during the meeting
hosted at the Leipsic Fogle Community Center. She has held the position
since September 2017. “I’m honored to work for the CIC Board of trustees
serving the businesses that call Putnam County home as well as all 15
incorporated villages and all 15 townships,” Sealts said. She commended
the past relationship building that has resulted in all the villages and
townships being a part of the CIC.
This year’s Red Rose Award
went to Ottoville. The award is given out annually to a community for
its efforts in business retention and expansion, infrastructure development, technology and innovation.
During
the past year Ottoville has had efforts in all three areas including
working with Geise Transmission as they built a new 9,000 square foot
facility inside the corporation limits and assisted Creative Edge
Cabinets to retain their Main Street location and expand nearly 2,000
square feet to the existing facility.
New water lines were
installed to Lock 16 which was then annexed into the village. Ottoville
also installed another line from PSI north to the corporation line to
support a residential subdivision and new storm water lines were added
to numerous locations in the village. The village also purchased new
computers and software to record infrastructure locations inside the
village and add these assets to GIS mapping.
When listing the 2017
highlights Sealts told the trustees there were projects in 2017
totaling $30.7 million in capital investments and over $6 million in in
infrastructure improvements around the county.
The
annual report indicated this resulted in 27 news jobs and the retention
of 562 jobs. These projects resulted in new payroll of $1.06 million
and helped retain payrolls of $4.06 million.
Sealts said the CIC
facilitated seven new development agreements last year in addition to
monitoring 52 agreements that are still active from previous years. “And
we’re happy to report these numbers have already increased in 2018,”
Sealts said. “In addition to commercial and industrial projects,
agri-business projects in the county continue to increase rapidly and
add capital to the total economy.
“In September 2017, the largest
capital investment project in Putnam County history was announced,”
Sealts said. “A $400 million expansion at Pro-Tec Coating Company. She
said the CIC finalized local development agreements in January and
continues to assist as needed with the project. The report indicated
this project is expected to be operational in 2019.
The CIC was
also a partner in a new county-wide workforce development event, Elevate
2017. This career and job fair gave 35 employers the opportunity to
showcase business culture and employment needs and interact with youth
who are the next generation of workers.
“The first year was a
success and Elevate 2018 was held one month ago, and attracting 43
businesses, 360 high school students and over 130 adult job seekers,”
Sealts said.