CIC expands Tuscarawas County technology infrastructure
Several years ago the CIC of Tuscarawas County added a future focus to its economic development strategy: putting in place the technology infrastructure for a community where residents can “live well and work smart.” During 2004, several components of this KBED (knowledge-based economic development) strategy were initiated, including the Tuscarawas Regional Technology Park, the Tuscarawas Regional Technology Accelerator, a regional broadband initiative, and a campaign to attract the federal FutureGen hydrogen demonstration plant.
The Tuscarawas Regional Technology Park will be located on 170 acres near University Drive in New Philadelphia. Approximately two-thirds of the site will be developed into lots with buildings in which tenants employ people with technology skills earning high wages. The remainder of the site will be left as green space with ponds, wooded areas and walking trails. During 2004, over $4 million in funding was secured from federal, state and local sources.
Our region has seen a gradual ratcheting down of wages as good jobs in manufacturing and mining have disappeared. The park will be a demonstration project of how a rural area such as ours can effectively rise above this trend and participate in the emerging technology-based economy. The park will generate the high-quality jobs that will enable our technically trained and qualified young people to remain here at home. The park will serve as a catalyst: the jobs created there will have a ripple effect on the rest of the Valley with higher property values, superior schools, higher incomes and expanded cultural amenities.
The CIC has commissioned the creation of a Master Plan to guide the conversion of what was a former mine site into a venue with an inviting sense of place and which will be a unique offering in the market place. The master planning process is being funded by a contribution from the Foundation for the Continuity of Mankind.
Technology companies cannot operate in a vacuum. They need to be “plugged in” to many state and national resource organizations to grow and thrive. In turn, these organizations seek ways to reach out to technology companies. The CIC, in collaboration with Kent State University Tuscarawas, has established the Tuscarawas Regional Technology Accelerator (TRTA) to serve as their satellite office in an increasingly technology-capable county.
The TRTA will be a major tool to foster the growth of new and existing technology companies in Tuscarawas County and Eastern Ohio. It will help focus national and state technology resources on Tuscarawas County and it will serve as a conduit to market our county to technology companies.
We’ve all heard about the loss of manufacturing jobs to China and elsewhere. That’s serious, but what’s even more alarming is that high-skilled, high-tech jobs are also increasingly being outsourced abroad. The CIC believes jobs like these can be effectively located in Tuscarawas County once we have the requisite broadband infrastructure or “pipes” in place. Although basic Internet access is universally available in Tuscarawas County, the Tuscarawas Regional Technology Park and the City of Dover’s fiber ring will require much more.
In 2004 the CIC of Tuscarawas County in partnership with the City of Dover and the Coshocton Port Authority were awarded a $50,000 planning grant by the Governor’s Office of Appalachia to help implement improved broadband service. A steering committee worked with GOA’s consultant to address the technical, legal, policy, and business issues involved. The planning process was completed in December and the group is now leveraging the results to obtain state and federal grants for the actual infrastructure deployment.
The Community Improvement Corporation has taken the lead in working to attract FutureGen to Tuscarawas County. A committee has been formed to identify potential sites. Several promising sites have been identified and the committee is currently seeking additional proposals from interested landowners.
As noted by the Department of Energy, FutureGen is an “initiative that will serve as a platform to demonstrate hydrogen production and carbon dioxide sequestration at a commercial scale. FutureGen is a government/industry cost-shared project to build a 275-megawatt IGCC [coal-based] test facility for evaluating cutting-edge technologies. Program objectives are to produce competitively-priced hydrogen, sequester up to 100% of the carbon dioxide by-product, and to produce electricity with zero emissions with less than 10% increase in cost compared to non-sequestration systems.”
FutureGen will demonstrate the technology to produce the hydrogen needed by tomorrow’s fuel cell-driven automobiles. It could reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It could reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And, its construction and operation could provide much needed paychecks to the residents of Tuscarawas and surrounding counties.
