| Calender of Events
Ashland
Dowtown Merchant Labor Day Event
AFTER THE PARADE ON MAIN
STREET
Johnny
Appleseed Birthday Celebration Johnny Appleseed Heritage
Center
Great Mohican
Indian Pow-Wow Mohican
Reservation
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Ashland County-West Holmes Carreer Center
Adult Education and Corporate Services
The ACWHCC offers onliste customized
training to companies. Some of the areas of
training available include: OSHA Compliance, OSHA Safety
Plan Creation, Forklift Certification, Windows Vista
training and MS Office 2007 training. These
programs are availabe for both an individual looking to
further their education or training or a
business.
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Dear Nikki,
Ashland County: A Diverse and
Progressive Local Economy
The words above are how I choose to
describe our county every time I am asked "what's going
on?" in the county. In just two
short months, since the publication of our June
newsletter, I have had the privilege of working with and
learning from several businesses that illustrate these
qualities.
We have chosen to profile one of these
discussions-- The Ashland Downtown Merchants
Committee--inside this issue. This is a newly
formed group that desires to Reinvent the Downtown
Spirit in Ashland. I know and
believe there are many more proactive business stories,
and this is my attempt to list just a few:
-
Recently, Liqui-Box, a DuPont Canada
Company, received tax incentives in exchange for their
commitment to create 25 jobs next year as their liquid
packaging business expands. Plant Manager
Sheff Sweet and the entire team deserve our
congratulations for, in Sheff's words, being
designated as the "flagship packaging plant" in the
DuPont family.
Sheff credited our great workforce as the
primary reason for the expansion.
-
Across
the street from Liqui-Box is another potential success
story at Ashland Performance Materials. Performance
Materials is currently applying for tax incentives to
create a minimum of 15 new jobs over the next 3 years
at an average pay of more than $22/hour. Many thanks to
the team and Plant Manager Mike Billow for working
hard to lobby his corporate leadership to bring a new
product line and 50,000 sq.ft. building to
Ashland!
- American Augers has the potential to
break ground on a 40,000 sq.ft. expansion that will
add to their product line and create about 25 jobs
(they are awaiting some State grant decisions, which
will dictate their final decision).
- Since June I have referred three
companies to the State's International Trade Division,
which offers free research and appointment setting
services for companies wanting to start or expand
their export sales. I look forward
to sharing their success stories in future articles,
and I hope they will be a symbol of our diverse
companies' abilities to serve worldwide
markets.
Stated very simply, we have some great
companies in this county, and this short list is just a
sample of the firms AACED has been working with
lately. In
September our office will be busy surveying the
manufacturing, healthcare, and educational/non-profit
sectors to provide you with an even better snapshot of
"what's going on".
We will be asking a very short list of
questions regarding business performance, challenges,
and needs.
No one enjoys surveys, but this will be a
painless one that will take no more than 10 minutes
of your time .
We will do this every other year to give citizens
this snapshot of the economy, but also to help us shape
our appropriate economic development services. Absolutely NO
references to specific companies will leave our office;
all information will be aggregated in a report that will
be e-mailed to respondents for their approval prior to
publication.
Please contact me with your ideas
regarding keeping this good momentum going. And, whether you
are a manufacturer, healthcare provider, service or
retail-oriented business, there are many resources
available to help you start down your own proactive
business path.
The Human Capital Workshop described
inside is just one example of many business counseling
services and seminars provided at Ashland
University.
AU, in partnership with SCORE, SBDC, the Chamber,
and others has a great fall lineup of events for the
small business owner. Get involved and
help make Ashland County the absolute best it can
be!
Sincerely,
Evan
Scurti |
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MAGNET and Cleveland+ Introduces New
Website |
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Neotechjobs.com
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There is a new website designed by MAGNET, the
Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, to help
match employers with job seekers. This website is
specifically for manufacturers. According to an
article in Industry Week, they expect upwards of 5,000
jobs to cycle through the site in the coming year.
This will be a great resource for manufacturers in
Northeast Ohio and Ashland County.
Visit the website at, www.jobmagnet.org. The
website is FREE to employers through November of this
year. You can post a job, search through resumes
or find an intern.
Neotechjobs.com is an Internet career networking
resource available to high-tech talent and Northeast
Ohio organizations with the intent of connecting jobs to
job-seekers. Currently, there are a total of
5,300 high-tech jobs unfilled from organizations
throughout the region.
High-tech job seekers search a database of Northeast
Ohio high-tech job postings using specific keywords to
filter results based on industry background. They also
have the ability to develop and post a skills-based
resume.
The Employers have the ability to post individual
jobs opportunities, search skills-based resumes, and
submit company URLs to NorTech so their job openings can
be aggregated into the jobs portal on a regular basis.
The Northeast Ohio High Tech Jobs portal was launched
on the heels of a report from Monster.com, stating that
Cleveland is now one of the top 5 hottest job markets in
the country, coming in at 4th place. Denver, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Pittsburgh,
Phoenix, and Boston did not make it into the top 10, and
San Diego and Washington DC experienced zero percent job
growth online. Monster stats show Cleveland with a 10
percent growth in one year.
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| Human Capital: Labor Shortage and Talent Crunch
Presented by Carrie Van Daele, President
and CEO of Van Daele & Associates, Inc. from Ft.
Wayne, IN.. On September 11, 2007 from 1 to 3 PM
in room 105 Dutch College of Business & Economics at
Ashland University.
Retain
Human Capital before you lose it!!!
- There will be 10 million more
jobs than people. "How do you expect to
accommodate the workforce demands on your company?"
- "How do you expect to find
skilled workers?"
- Businesses who can harness
employee knowledge will survive this crisis.
- The next wave of economic
growth is going to come from knowledge-based
businesses-those with the intellectual capital to
enable them to make smart products and services.
- No matter what type of
business it is- it will be necessary to manage the
knowledge of that company's personnel to achieve
economic growth.
This workshop
is being sponsored by the Burton D. Morgan Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies at Ashland University.
There is a $20/person charge for this event.
For More information please
contact Bob Stimpert, at the Morgan Center,
419-289-5295.
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Cleveland
Manufacturing Group Looking for Regional Interest and
Suppliers in the Growing Wind Energy Market
WIRE-Net, a Cleveland-area manufacturing advocacy
agency, has reached out to the economic development
community in Northeast Ohio to strengthen our position
in the wind energy industry. According to a
recent WIRE-Net article, the U.S. leads the world in
market expansion-installations grew 42% in 2005, 30% in
2006, and projections are 25% in 2007. To meet
President Bush's national wind power goal, that rate
will need to increase past 20% well into the next
decade.
With all of this growth, there is little space
capacity in the supply chain. Therefore,
WIRE-Net believes our region's skilled manufacturers
have an amazing opportunity to meet a need. To support their
belief, WIRE-Net cites the recent national
study-Renewable Energy Policy Project-which
reports that Ohio ranks second among the 50 states with
the potential to supply the 8,000 components found in
today's wind turbine.
Of course, AACED wants to hear from all of
you regarding your ability to become part of this supply
chain.
Please help us and WIRE-Net and contact our
office if:
- You
are already supplying Original Equipment Manufacturers
(OEMs) in the wind turbine industry.
- Contact us even if your company simply
wants to explore this market; WIRE-Net can confirm
with OEMs regarding their manufacturing needs.
(*The
schematic below is not meant to be an exhaustive
explanation of the industry's needs, but it does display
the major components of the wind
turbine).
By contacting us, you can help WIRE-Net
and other state leaders strengthen this industry. More
importantly, AACED wants to provide a direct service of
presenting you with contacts and ideas that lead to
increased sales and growth.
We look forward to positioning Ashland
County at the forefront of renewable energy projects
like these.
Please call us with your ideas, and feel free to
call WIRE-Net directly:
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Reinventing the Downtown
Spirit
The Ashland Downtown Merchants
Committee is a newly formed group that hopes to bring a
new sense of community to the Ashland Downtown and
revitalize the interest in local businesses. This committee
wants to reinvent the way people perceive the Ashland
downtown.
In the past downtown stores have been more about
the business, now there is a great sense and need of
community. They have begun planning events in downtown
Ashland, in hopes of getting more people interested and
involved.
Debbie Brown, who is a major organizer in the
Ashland Downtown Merchants Committee and owner of
Enjoy Gourmet Gifts and Specialties, says, "We
have a unique opportunity as a downtown to pull together
and join forces." They have planned an event for Labor
Day called the All-Around Downtown
Labor Day Event.
It will be held on the closed off portion of
Main Street.
There are several activities being held during
the event from an Ashland Idol contest, to a
pizza-tasting contest being judged by several leaders in
the city.
They have managed to acquire several participants
from downtown businesses along with other businesses
from outside the downtown supporting their
efforts.
There is uniqueness and diversity
that comes with businesses in downtown Ashland. There are
restaurants, banks, gifts shops, antique shops, candy
shop, clothing shop and much more. When the
committee meets and discusses ideas for events or
collaborating it brings array of expertise to the
group. But
even with all the collaboration, but it is very
important to have involvement from the entire
community.
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Ashland Area Council for Economic Development
206 Claremont Ave.
Ashland, Ohio 44805
Phone: 419-289-3200 Fax: 419-289-3233
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