Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) held their 24th annual business & industry appreciation banquet on Tuesday, November 12th at Grant’s Catering.
The annual banquet brought many of our local, state and regional business partners together to recap the achievements and growth in Paulding County since last year. Following a social hour, complete with music provided by the Stringato Quartet, PCED Board President Mike Kauser opened the meeting introducing the board and thanking the Paulding County Commissioners and staff for their support.
Dinner was served before a presentation was provided for the nearly 200 attendees at the event. The presentation opened with brief introductions by banquet sponsors Jessica Satler, with the Regional Growth Partnership, along with RJ Mancini with Jobs Ohio. PCED Director Tim Copsey then gave a recap of the year that highlighted the $61,982,960 private investment into the county. PCED acknowledged 20-year investment members; Natural Design & Graphics, Dooley Funeral Home and Antwerp Chamber of Commerce.
Two Antwerp High School students, Braylen Moreno and Derek Hines, both from Mrs. Kayla Bagley’s Audio Visual classroom, prepared a wonderful Paulding County quality-of-life video for the county. In collaboration with the PCED office, the video was developed to be shared on the PCED website and captures all the great entertainment opportunities and food establishments around Paulding County.
In between some of the success stories, marketing blurbs were shared about new county businesses that became PCED investment members in 2024. Those businesses and owners included: Studio 38 Cheer and Tumble facility with Cassandra Oates, Hidn Treasures Artisan Market & U-Haul with Heather & Mike Shurburn, Deja Brew by Cassy coffee trailer with Cassy Kashner, Hometown Speech Connections Pediatric Speech Therapy office with Jen Smith and Misty Meadows U-pick Flowers with Misti Klopfenstein.
The last item on the evening agenda was to acknowledge the Paulding County 2024 Mayor’s Award. The newly established award will be presented to one of the eleven village mayors annually for their service and dedication to community. The first annual recipient of the award was presented to Village of Cecil Mayor Gene Sheets. Gene has been the mayor of Cecil for over 30 years and goes above and beyond in filling roles of village administrator, utility worker, sewer plant operator along with many other tasks for the small rural community.
Copsey shared, “This annual banquet is just a culmination of one year’s worth of great collaboration, teamwork and dedication to the Paulding County community. It’s a well attended event that brings all our PCED partners together for a night of sharing success and networking before we all enter the holiday season. We are glad to be able to share all of these wonderful stories and successes with each other as we continue to build on #pauldingcountystrong.”
