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ADAMS COUNTY |
Picture this: a rural community, where the farm work ethic is still much in evidence; where an industry can buy a site for as little as $1 an acre; where telecommunications are so advanced a company can communicate with anyone in the world; and where a little-traveled four-lane highway leads to one of the Midwest's fastest growing metro areas, less than an hour away.
| If this sounds like a little bit of paradise, it is. Adams County on the Ohio River in southern Ohio is just 45 minutes east of Cincinnati on State Route 32, the Appalachian Highway. The highway wends its way along a gently rolling farming landscape punctuated with down-home names like Tranquillity Pike and the Town of Unity.
"We have what companies need," says Don Young, director of the Adams County Office of Economic Development. "The labor force is skilled and has the work ethic inherent in rural communities. Unionization is low. We have an available labor force of at least 3,000 people who are now commuting to jobs in Cincinnati and Dayton." A number of points underscore Adams County's bid for new industry. The average wage is $5.66 an hour for manufacturing, assembly and construction -- about $3 an hour less than Dayton. (By comparison, fast food franchisers in Ohio's metro areas have to pay $7 an hour for unskilled workers.) Land in Seaman Industrial Park is just $1 an acre. Cincinnati is just 45 minutes away over an uncrowded, four-lane highway. It's an easy shot to Cincinnati's international airport. |
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"We've got a lot of things in Adams County that are not common in rural areas," says Young. "One is advanced telecommunications infrastructure. Our county's four new schools have distance learning/interactive video."
Adams County is prepared with sites for industry. The 35-acre Seaman Industrial Park, serviced with water, sewer and 3-phase electric, is one-half mile off Route 32. More land around the industrial park is available at reasonable prices. The park is perfect for plastics and auto-related manufacturers.
Of particular interest to industry is a new training program that can be customized for plastics firms. Participants are trained in material selection, mold design, production methods, CNC machining and plastics processing. Training can be done at the Ohio Valley Vocational School, at the local branch of Southern State Community College or at the plant site.
Entrepreneurship thrives in idyllic Adams County. A good example is Aeroframe Corp., which was started just three years ago and now employs 100 in this company and a sister firm, MACA Plastics. The two companies are involved in aerospace, automotive and plastics.
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President Andy Culbertson worked for GE, which tests jet engines on a 6,500-acre site in Peebles. When GE reengineered its processes, it was looking for companies that would accept out-sourced production. This was Culbertson's cue to set up shop as a supplier to GE of drafting, engineering designs and tool-making.
"We provide a good service and we're fast," says Culbertson. "I'll be here at 2 in the morning making parts because we understand that if GE's test is down it's costing them $10,000 an hour. Knowing what the customer needs has been the reason for our success." |
Another reason for the company's growth is its relationship to Weastec, a first tier supplier to several Japanese and American auto-makers. Fast-growing Weastec was recently looking for a location for an assembly operation. Mexico was the top candidate because of low labor costs. However, by the time Weastec figured in shipping, travel time and the hassles of dealing with problems 1,000 miles away, the company settled on a relationship with Aeroframe in Adams County, just 20 miles from the Weastec plant.
"I thought availability of skilled labor would be a major problem here, but it wasn't," says Culbertson. "We have a stack of 500 or more applications all the time. Plus, productivity here is 15 percent more than where I came from."
About an hour's drive away is Shawnee State College, which offers degree programs in plastics technology, one of the few such programs in the nation.
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Allen County |
