Smaller industries might be key to jobs
Published 12:00 am Monday, January 31, 2000
Madison County, whose officials fought back from double-digit unemployment to become the county with the lowest rate in the state today, credits success to nearby communities and manufacturing plants.
Monday, January 31, 2000
Madison County, whose officials fought back from double-digit unemployment to become the county with the lowest rate in the state today, credits success to nearby communities and manufacturing plants.
To the north is Navistar in Springfield, supporting about 6,000 jobs. Nearby Marysville is home to Honda. And Columbus companies like General Motors frequently announce expansions.
By supporting smaller plants that supply parts to those neighboring manufacturers, Madison County bounced back from its once high unemployment.
Gary Hughes, a former Springfield resident and Navistar retiree, sees possibilities for Lawrence County in that supplier industry strategy.
Hughes used to contact Dayton Malleable in Ironton each week about parts the local plant made for Navistar.
"You get your smaller machine shops into bidding and contracting with these places and you create jobs," he said.
In fact, throughout central Ohio – Urbana, Washington Court House, Newark and Circleville, for example – where unemployment rates run below the state average of 4.0 percent, there is not a lot of large-scale new industry, Hughes said.
"But there are a lot of smaller companies that make parts for them."
And, supply industries might be all that are going to come in the future.
"There’s been such a thing in the last 10 to 15 years where the bigger industries will shut down the smaller plants and move all the work to bigger ones … They call it lean and mean," he said.
Betty Driskell, the Greater Lawrence County Area Chamber of Commerce’s deputy director of economic development, said attracting supply-type businesses is a viable option.
Larger industries have always encouraged the "free enterprise" development of companies that call and bid for their contracts, Ms. Driskell said.
Because of Lawrence County’s access to railroads, the Ohio River and Interstate 64, local companies could bid on Toyota contracts, for instance, she said, adding that Lawrence County sits favorably between the company’s Buffalo, W.Va., and Georgetown, Ky., plants.
The county doesn’t have the space for a six-square-mile Toyota plant like Buffalo’s, but attracting support industries still can provide hundreds of plant jobs per site, Ms. Driskell said.
In fact, that’s part of the game plan for the county’s South Point industrial park site in the former ethanol plant area and abandoned AlliedSignal land in Ironton, she said.
"It will be a prime location," Ms. Driskell said. "It may not settle the problems of today, but it will if people see the vision."
Building site infrastructure and marketing of such sites will continue for that purpose, as well as to attract large industry, she said.
Meanwhile, existing business also can try to grab a piece of the support service pie, even for as far away as Honda in Marysville.
In some cases, it might be as simple as phoning Honda and placing a bid, Ms. Driskell said.
Transportation costs might reduce the competitiveness of local bids but you can ship on water for less, and that’s the crux of the chamber’s riverport idea, she said.
Establishing an Ohio River port in the county will give companies easier access to nationwide shipping, she said.
In the long run, the idea is to find a match between company and community, Ms. Driskell said.
"That’s what we’re hoping to do at South Point and Allied and up and down the river.
"We’re so confident that’s where we’re headed."