Commissioners work with CAA to bring back economic development director

LISBON - Columbiana County commissioners have gone most of the 2000s without an economic development director due to funding problems, but that may change.

Commissioners on Wednesday voted to send a letter in support of efforts by the Community Action Agency to use some of its federal stimulus money to hire a county economic development director. The approval to do this must come from the Ohio Department of Development.

Although the resolution to send the letter was adopted without comment, commissioners were asked about the proposal by reporters after the meeting, and they explained the CAA came to them with the idea of seeking permission to use federal stimulus money to fund an economic development position.

"We are obviously excited about the prospect of having a quality economic development director in Columbiana County to help us," said Commission Chairman Penny Traina. "It would be an economic development tool that I believe would be a benefit to us."

Commissioners have been without such a person since the early 2000s after they eliminated the development director's position due to funding problems. Commissioners said the county probably missed out on applying for a number of federal and state grants that otherwise could have been obtained to help fund local economic development projects.

"I believe we're leaving money on the table, and I think it would behoove us to take a more aggressive approach," Traina said.

There are regional organizations that offer free grant-writing services to commissioners, but Traina said the problem is that to apply you have to be aware of the existence of these grants in the first place.

The chief responsibility of an economic development director would be to keep abreast of the various state and federal sources of tax dollars available to counties and local communities.

"This person would be able to go out and apply for that money without us having to find out what money is available," she said.

After the economic development director position was eliminated, commissioners sometimes turned to county Port Authority Director Tracy Drake for assistance in seeking grants. Commissioner Jim Hoppel said Drake has been helpful, but his first obligation is to the port authority and it would be better to have someone who can focus solely on grants.

Another reason commissioners said they would like to have the position back is because they don't have the time or ability to perform those development duties in the comprehensive manner that is required. They pointed out most counties this size either have a development director or administrator or both, but Columbiana County has neither.

"We are limited to what the three of us can do," Traina said.

For more details, commissioners referred reporters to CAA Executive Director Carol Bretz, who could not be reached late Wednesday evening. Commissioners said the expectation is the development director position would become self-sustaining because grants allow a percentage of the money to be used for administration.