The economic growth in Wood County was “fantastic,” and is on par to continue in 2020.
That message was shared Wednesday by each of the three Wood County Commissioners at their annual State of
the County address.
“2019 was a fantastic year, for development and growth-wise,” Commissioner Craig LaHote said. “2020 is
looking to be pretty close to that. We set some records in 2019 in terms of growth, but things are
looking strong in 2020 as well.”
Commissioner Ted Bowlus mentioned the creation of a reinvestment area in Henry Township near the CSX
intermodal. In February of this year, commissioners approved a community reinvestment area – Northpoint
— that is planning to construct a series of five buildings ranging in size from 500,000 square feet to 1
million square feet.
The first phase is expected to attract more than 1,500 jobs, he said, with 500 jobs with phase two.
The county has approved everything to allow them to build, but it won’t be on spec “so they’re going to
wait until they have a client then build a building for that client. We’re really hoping that starts
moving this year,” said Wade Gottschalk, executive director of the Wood County Economic Development
Commission.
“The purpose of this is to attract companies that will lease the space and take advantage of neighboring
intermodal facilities for moving their products,” Bowlus said.
He said expected customers include Amazon, Ford, Kubota and Staples, among other.
“We will find solutions to this problem,” Bowlus said about the inevitable railroad crossings being block
by train traffic.
Those blocked crossings are also causing trucks to look for alternate routes, often on county roads that
can’t handle the weight and traffic.
“That’s something were going to look at, what we can do to help them stay on the routes and what we can
do to clear up those crossings a little bit sooner,” LaHote said.
In the north end of the county, NSG North America has broken ground for a new float-glass production
facility in Troy Township, and is expected to employ 150 people.
Gottschalk said he believes this is NSG’s first glass plant in the United States in 30 years.
“So it is a great win for us,” he said.
First Solar is nearing completion of a $400 million production facility in Lake Township that will employ
500 people.
Amazon has broken ground on a $175 million fulfillment center in Rossford that is expected to employ
1,000.
“Jobs are being created left and right,” LaHote said. “It’s been a banner year and we’re really excited
about all the investment that’s happening.”
He addressed the concern of county employees finding workers. He pointed out an employer paying less than
$12 per hour has a high risk of their employees looking elsewhere.
“These companies are now offering $14 per hour and higher as a beginning wage, with benefits such as
medical insurance and college tuition reimbursement,” he said.
Gottschalk said he is looking to a successful 2020 “barring any global issues that are out of our
control.”
One such global issue is the coronavirus. Three cases have been confirmed in Cuyahoga County.
Doris Herringshaw, president of the Wood County Commissioners, said all county offices have been advised
to wipe down their desks, doorknobs and other areas touched frequently several times a day and every
night.
“We’re also encouraging people to stay home if they are ill. We’re trying to separate workers so there’s
six feet between them if we can do that, so we don’t get any contamination between people,” she said.
The county also has looked at the possibility of canceling events that involve large groups of people,
and the judges are thinking about that related to trials.
“Virtually every company today does global business, and so if this becomes a global economic issue
bigger than it already is, we will see those impacts in Wood County,” Gottschalk said. “As of right now,
we have not.”
Both Herringshaw and county Administrator Andrew Kalmar said if the state address had been scheduled for
next week, it may have been canceled.
Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn is concerned with how to deal with numerous inmates who are sick from
the virus and how to keep it spreading through the jail.
“We have the ability for the hygiene, but making (inmates) do it, we can’t make them do that so we’re
certainly concerned about the health of the inmates.”
If he has deputies out sick, that will impact the county.
“That is the discussion sheriffs are having, if one gets hit worse than someone else,” he said.
“Obviously we’re really stressing the hygiene of washing hands all the time, keeping distance, not
touching the face. That’s huge, but again I think a majority of us are going to be exposed to this virus
and we’re just hoping it doesn’t last long.”
According to Herringshaw, the main financial priorities in the county are working with the sheriff on the
jail expansion and determining what will be done with the county highway garage. Moving the garage from
Poe Road to the county complex on East Gypsy Lane is being considered.
Right now where plows have to go out for snow removal, they have to go through town, Kalmar said. Having
the garage outside the city will alleviate that concern.
Roads and bridges are always a top priority, Herringshaw said.
“The engineer has a rating system and each year he rates all the roads and bridges, so he can take care
of those that need special attention.
There are 440 bridges that need maintenance.
According to LaHote, in July 2018, the county transferred $2.1 million to a fund to assist the county
engineer in building and repairing county roads and bridges. Each year for five years, $200,000 will be
dedicated from the county sales tax to this fund.
In 2019, the county engineer replaced a bridge on Long Judson Road and repaired five roads for a total of
$2.2 million.
Other items discussed included:
• The county is waiting approval from the EPA on expansion at the landfill. The current site has about
5.5 years left of usable space based on current waste rates and the expansion will allow for another 100
years.
• In 2020, citizens will be asked to participate in the U.S. census.
Being counted and making sure all people are counted is very important, Bowlus said. Representation in
Congress is based on population as is the amount of tax money from the federal government.
• The general fund for 2020 is $45.5 million, $930,036 lower than in 2019.
Sales tax receipts reached a record amount of $22.90 million.
• The county in 2018 opened 10 permanent 24/7 mixed recycling drop-off locations, making it more
convenient for residents, and the response has been “tremendous,” LaHote said. Two more locations have
been added, bringing the number of recyclables collected up 1.25 million pounds since 2017, an increase
of 763%.
• $1.3 million was received from the state and the county paid the remaining $800,000 needed to replace
aging electronic voting equipment. The new system was successfully deployed in November.
• The Wood County Veterans Memorial on the southwest corner of the courthouse lawn will be replaced with
a plaza that will recognize all county residents who died in the Civil War, World War I and II, Korea,
Vietnam, the Gulf War and Afghanistan.
The project will cost $400,000 and the hope is to unveil the finished product on Veterans Day this year.
