Austin Brooks is welcomed by Jerry Zielke before he speaks on the CEO Program. More pictures at westbendnews.net
The annual Paulding County Economic Development Dinner took place on Thursday, October 19. The dinner recognized many people and businesses for their achievements and all their hard work to create new jobs and expansion projects in the Paulding County area. Jerry Zielke stated, “Millions of dollars of capital investment in the county this past year with over 200: new jobs created in the county so far.” Much has been done with Jerry and his work here.
The Small Business Innovation Center had several major changes including lighting and internet, enabling several business expansions in the building. Current renters include Deanna Schroder with Ag Credit, Brown & Brown Insurance, The Paulding County Waste Management Program, and The Paulding County Park District. White Construction LLC is renting the upstairs now as they are working on building a new wind farms.
Jerry reported over 400 high school students attended the Career Opportunity Showcase. There were 16 colleges attending and 15 businesses display at the event this year.
There were several businesses recognized for building, employee or equipment expansions: Baker Shindler Contracting in Paulding, Alex Products in Paulding, LaFarge in Paulding, Paulding County Hospital, Kirk Stoller Enterprises, and VanCrest Payne.
There was over over twenty other businesses with projects this past year. It has been a very busy year.
The future looks bright for 2018 as there currently are over 20 active projects at this time. These projects include anything from startup businesses to major capital investments by existing manufacturing companies.
Companies recognized for their sponsorships were: Baughman Tile – Eric Baughman, Antwerp Exchange Bank – Ron Eschbach and his team from the bank, Williamson Ins Agency – Rex and Teresa Williamson
Ohio Gas Company – Douglas Westhoven, Cooper Farms – Terry Wehrkamp, Paulding Putnam Electric – Erika Willitzer, Brown & Brown Insurance LLC – James Bailey & Amy Crawford, AEP Ohio –
Poggemeyer Design Group – Lee Rausch, Huntington Bank – Ty Otto and Ashley Collins
The speaker this year was Austin Brooks of the Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship, bringing leadership skills and abilities for business into the classroom with the CEO program.
One business that was congratulated this year was Paulding’s True Value Hardware/Napa. In 1967 Marion F. Burkley started the business in Payne, Ohio and then moved it to Paulding in 1978. Tony Burkley took over and in 1999 added True Value to the retail store. Tony has worked in the business for 47 of the 50 years.
