Regional development needs team effort

Published 12:00 am Friday, December 19, 2003

Tribune editorial staff

In order for a region to flourish economically, all communities within it need to support each other.

This philosophy was evident Wednesday in Portsmouth as leaders from Lawrence County helped welcome Sun Coke to Haverhill. The $135 million coke plant may be located in Scioto County, but Lawrence County will reap some of the rewards.

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When our leaders think about economic development, they have to think regionally. Business in Portsmouth - or Huntington, W.Va., or Ashland, Ky., for that matter - benefits residents of Lawrence County. We may not be able to claim the companies, but we can boast of the good, hard workers we provide them.

And we may be able to return the favor to Scioto County as Calpine

inked a 100-percent, 10-year tax abatement with several Lawrence County government agencies and schools Thursday. In lieu of taxes, Calpine will donate 50 percent of what it would have paid to various taxing entities.

We've known for a couple years now Calpine planned to build natural gas fired electricity plant in Hamilton Township, and even though Thursday's move does not make the project official, it is a major step. Company officials plan to break ground on the project in late 2005.

Ultimately, we would be prefer to have more businesses in Lawrence County, but some nearby are better than none at all. We have something special here in southeastern Ohio. Not many other regions work as well together across county lines and different communities.

While neither Lawrence or Scioto county has landed a large-scale employer in recent years, if we collectively lure several medium-scale employers into the region, we will thrive. The bottom line is we cannot pass up opportunities in either county as each can feed off the other. We have many common state- and national-level legislators and if the communities are working together, good things are bound to happen.

We salute our local leaders for getting behind the

Sun Coke project and welcome the jobs the company will bring.We hope our neighbors afford us the same courtesy when we are wooing businesses to Lawrence County.