by

Heinz Stucki

The mission statement of the Community Improvement Corporation of Tuscarawas County is to advance, encourage, and promote the industrial, economic, commercial, and civic development of all Tuscarawas County.  An important component is to be a steward for our environment.  In addition to furthering our economic environment, two of our major projects, developing the Tuscarawas Regional Technology Park and working to attract FutureGen to the area, will help enhance our natural environment.

                              Much of the site for the Technology Park has been previously strip-mined or deep-mined.    Our master plan for the Technology Park calls for developing about half of the site into lots for technology businesses while preserving the remainder as green space.  The building envelopes and development areas have been tightly clustered to preserve wildlife and bird habitats, retain panoramic views, and mitigate increased storm water runoff.  The open space will be developed and managed to create meadows of native vegetation.  The various development clusters will be interconnected by a series of recreational trails.  These are intended support the health and well being of the occupants of the buildings and to promote opportunities for interaction among the various clusters and facilities. 

                              Portions of the overall site will be reforested to enhance the overall aesthetic quality of the park.  The reforested areas will be planted with a variety of native trees that match the existing tree species on the property.  Thickets of native ornamental trees will be located to visually link the building clusters and to provide seasonal interest and color.    

The Tuscarawas County CIC has taken the lead in working to attract FutureGen to Tuscarawas County.  This United States Department of Energy hydrogen and electricity from coal program will pilot the process to make the hydrogen needed by tomorrow’s fuel cell-driven automobiles. 

The potential economic and environmental impacts are profound.  In addition to the 200 technical and engineering jobs directly created by FutureGen, there will be many additional jobs including 1000 in construction alone.  Hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles could ultimately reduce our demand for petroleum by 3 million barrels per day. 

FutureGen draws upon the best scientific research to address the issue of global climate change.  The technological and economic feasibility of capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide that is produced when coal is burned, rather than releasing it to the atmosphere, will be evaluated. 

Our proposed site is also a previously-mined area in the southern part of the county.  In addition to geological sequestration, The CIC is collaborating with the USDA North Appalachian Experimental Station to plan a program for biological sequestration using appropriate planting.  If we are indeed successful in attracting this project to our county, it will become an environmental tourism destination drawing visitors from around the world.