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Middletown
will have new elementary schools within a few years The Middletown Board of Education formalized an agreement with the state Forecast: Area job growth to jump by ’10 On the Middletown interchange, $1.4 million is scheduled to be allocated in 2005, $7.4 million in 2006 with the $21.2 million coming three years later
Smurfit Stone partners
Businesses honored at
Safety Awards banquet |
Airbus will
give Aeronca a lift Aeronca is ready to help Butler County among tops in places to live Middletown to look beyond manufacturing Intended to entice motorist to city.
City OKs wider enterprise zone Contech buys Alaskan drainage pipe firm
Solutions celebrates lab
achievement
Smurfit Stone wins
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Smurfit Stone partners with Middletown By GLENNA FISHER If you’ve ever eaten a White Castle hamburger you’ve held a Middletown-made product in your hands. "We’ve made every package for them, since day one," said Win Edge, general manager of the Smurfit Stone Container Corporation’s paper mill at 407 Charles St. Even if you haven’t tried the famous little burgers, you’ve probably eaten Kellogg’s cereal or a Betty Crocker product that was packaged in one of the folding cartons manufactured here. And the box may have been made from your daily newspaper. Colorful name-brand packages stand on display inside the building while bales of corrugated cardboard and newspaper are stacked at the staging area ready to begin a new and glamorous life as a bright red strawberry swirl cheesecake package. Smurfit Stone is the country’s largest packaging company, with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, MO., and world headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. The Charles Street facility is actually two plants, a paper mill and a carton plant. Each year the mill produces 137,000 tons of clay coated boxboard that is then made into dry food packaging. Clay coating, a combination of latex, titanium, and clay slurry is the final layer, the one that gives the product a smooth surface and printability. Edge described the process from incoming trucks filled with wastepaper to outgoing trucks destined for final customers, like Betty Crocker, Kellogg or Kimberly-Clark or other carton plants throughout the Midwest. Baled wastepaper is purchased in two grades, cardboard and newsprint. Cardboard makes up the inner layers, newsprint the outer ones. The bales go into vats, called pulpers, that are sometimes 18 feet in diameter and the fiber is mixed with hot water to form a slurry. The mixture is then cleaned in three or four phases to remove any contaminants such as staples or plastic and pumped to the paper machine where it is formed. The coated boxboard is six plies thick, with one ply laid down on top of another. Pressure and water removal form the slurry into a board, beginning with a mixture that is 50 percent water and 50 percent fiber. Entering the dryer section, 10-feet wide and pressurized with 125 pounds of steam, the board is dried until it contains only two-percent water. The board then enters the coating line where the clay coating is applied, giving the finished product a smooth, glossy surface. The product comes off the line in 10-foot wide, 10-ton rolls. A rewinder slits the rolls to customer sizes. At this point the product leaves the paper mill and goes to a carton facility, either the Middletown facility or one of a half-dozen others scattered throughout the Midwest. The carton plant feeds the rolls through a press and prints the rolls with customer packaging design. Final processes include cutting and gluing operations before the product ships to the final customer. "Six customers account for 90 percent of our business," Edge said. Smurfit Stone is the sole supplier or preferred supplier in each of those cases. Excellent quality and responsive service maintain that market position. Smurfit employees spend a lot of time and effort servicing those customers and turnaround time is quick. Smurfit’s P Squared program, which stands for Packaging Partners, dedicates individual line employees to certain customers. These employees interface with their customers on a regular basis and customers know who to call to get direct service. The operator then brings the problem back to the plant’s technical group. The employee is responsible for disseminating information throughout the plant as well as back to the customer. Edge cites an example of a Louisville customer who had sent approximately 20 people to the Smurfit plant over a two-month period. The visits were begun when a Smurfit line employee visited the customer and saw the need for personnel there to see the paper mill’s processes. That employee than made all the arrangements for the customer visits. The paper mill and carton facility employ approximately the same number of people—160 each, with sales and administrative personnel bringing total employment to around 340. According to Edge, the workforce is relatively stable, with many fathers and sons working together. The carton plant provides entry-level employment with advanced positions in the paper mill. "This is a good group of people, hard working," Edge said. Five years ago, plant output was 330 tons per day; now it averages 390 tons and many days runs over 400 tons per day. Efficiencies have been incremental. In 1998, and old coal-fired boiler was replaced with two natural gas boilers with higher capacity, greater reliability and improved environmental impact. Upgrades to equipment have improved processes and consistency of the paper product. "It’s been great for our employees to see they can have that kind of impact," Edge said. Like many employers, Smurfit Stone faces the problem of an aging workforce. With many key employees eligible for retirement, replacements are being sought and trained. "We have developed a local succession plan," Edge said. "We believe in getting people involved early on." Edge’s steering committee reviews those who are being promoted or retiring and makes sure that replacements are in the works, with one or two people considered for each opening Storage for the plant’s finished goods presents a challenge. Finished goods vary between 2,000 and 6,000 tons and with the very small footprint the plant has additional storage space is needed. "We have looked around Middletown and there doesn’t seem to be anything here with the size or location we need, so we have had to go toward Cincinnati. And that is a big cost to us," Edge said. Storage requirements include proper floor loading capability and height as well as 24 hour, seven-day a week truck access. Edge sees this as an increasing problem since plant efficiencies and production increases have created bottlenecks over the last few years. The plant has been able to handle those so far but expansion promises this will be an ever-increasing problem. Smurfit Stone’s educational ties are beneficial to both parties, as well. Edge is a member of the Paper Science Foundation at Miami. The plant hires paper technology interns and three full time employees from the program have been hired in the last two years. The plant aids in senior research projects and has funded an endowment at Miami. Smurfit has also become involved with education at the primary level. Nearby Jefferson School students visit the plant to witness recycling on a large scale. The plant donated shrubbery for the school property and groups of students have visited, singing Christmas carols in the plant halls. "Paper has a long history here," Edge said. "The plant has been around for a long time under various names, but doing the same thing. We are strategically located for our customers, and we are a profitable facility. We plan to be here for the long haul."
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Being a good corporate citizen pays dividends Cohen Brothers in their third generation By GLENNA FISHER Ken Cohen is firmly grounded in the family business. He started working at age five, sorting rags on Saturday mornings. His pay was 50-cents for the morning’s work but his reward was having lunch with his grandfather. Grandfather Mose Cohen emigrated from Russia, arriving at Ellis Island with youth and perseverance on his side. He began work in Middletown in 1924, with a pushcart, collecting scrap and accumulating it until the piles were big enough to sell. Cohen Brothers no longer deals in rags. They’re an ISO 9000-certified company with seven locations. They rank among the top 20 recycling companies in the country. And today’s sorting process demands knowledge of exact chemistries of the materials they collect and recycle. Yet Cohen, president of the company, said that the business remains very much the same as it was when Mose Cohen and his brother Phil began nearly 80 years ago. "The only way the business has changed is that when my grandfather started he was a peddler," he said. "When my father started he was in the scrap business, when I began it was as a scrap processor, and now we are a recycler. We are doing the same thing we have always done. It’s just the terminology based on the popularity of the phrase that has changed." Cohen Brothers buys scrap metal and prepares it for use in furnaces to make new metal. They sort various grades of metal according to chemistries and turn the scrap into a form the customer’s furnace can take. That may require cutting shorter pieces, making the material more dense or shredding, baling or boxing it. Once prepared, recycled metal is shipped via truck or rail to customers. Those customers are steel, copper, brass and aluminum mills within a 250-mile radius of Southwestern Ohio. Middletown’s location is one of the advantages for Cohen’s business. Their scrap collection area extends to Kentucky, southeastern Indiana, north into central Ohio, and east into Brown and Claremont counties. Being centrally located between Dayton and Cincinnati allows Cohen Brothers to be competitive in a number of markets. Freight is a major expense in their business since trucks are used to collect all the scrap and bring it to Middletown. While Middletown is the hub of Cohen’s businesses, they own and manage plants in Columbus, Washington Courthouse, Dayton, West Carrolton, Hamilton and Rockport, Indiana. The West Carrolton plant reduces automobiles to fist-sized pieces and separates ferrous scrap, non-ferrous scrap and non-metal materials in 40 seconds. Cohen Brothers has processed hundreds of thousands of cars at that location since 1971. The success of the Cohen family’s recycling business has resulted in offers to buy the company. But there is a certain pride in being in a family business, Cohen said. "It’s more a family than a company," he said. Well into the third generation, the company hopes to be around as a family business for a long time. In those three generations, the Cohens have put down deep roots, not only as a family, but also in the community. Cohen’s father, Wilbur, has been actively involved with Middletown’s civic life for nearly 60 years, holding, his son said, "Nearly every civic and volunteer position in the community." When the younger Cohen began working fulltime in 1970 one of the first things he was told to do was to go out and get involved in the community. That prompting led to involvement in the chamber, the YMCA, Big Brothers and many other organizations, including Middletown Regional Hospital. He currently serves on the chamber board, the hospital board and the Middletown Economic Development Committee. He’s a division chairman for the United Way and will chair the United Way campaign in 2006. He is also active in Temple Beth Sholom in Middletown and Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati. "We are strong believers that you get out of something what you put into it," Cohen said. "Although most of our time is taken with the work that we do, it is just as important for us to make time for the community." Making time for the community has allowed Cohen to work with government and business leaders in many areas. He said that Middletown’s size makes it a friendly place to work "Everybody knows everybody and we are all working together for the same reasons," Cohen said. Cohen Brothers has been a good corporate citizen and Middletown’s government has been a good public citizen, he said. Cohen believes Middletown is doing a lot of things right to make the area a better place to do business, especially with regard to the relocation of Middletown Regional Hospital and infrastructure support for the new facility. He said Middletown both publicly and privately is doing the right things to foster good business relationships, both with established people who work here and those who are thinking of locating here. Relationships are at the heart of Cohen’s business. "We are all here for the same reason," he said. "That is for the benefit of our families and ourselves. That is really our philosophy of life as well as business."
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Businesses
honored at Safety Awards banquet
Southwestern Ohio Safety Council honored area businesses at
its annual Safety Awards Banquet Thursday at the Manchester Inn.
The top award is the Special Award, given to each company
that accumulates at least 500,000 hours and at least six months
without a lost-time injury. The recipients this year are Contech
Construction Products, Cinergy Corp., Smurfit-Stone Corp.-Carton and
AK Steel Corp.
The Achievement Award is given to each company that decreases
its incident rate by at least 25 percent from the previous year. This
year, those companies are Cohen Brothers Inc., SK Construction Co.,
Hart Industries Inc., Amtex Inc. and AK Steel Corp.
Recipients of the Group Award worked the entire year without
a lost-time injury or illness. Those are John Dobrozsi Jr, Insurance
Agency Inc., Chapple Leasing Inc., Haines Adjusting Co., General
Chemical Corp., Haley Industrial Services, Martin Marietta Aggregates,
Mecco Inc., Piping of Ohio Inc., Fair-Way Lawn Inc., Con-Tech
Resources Inc., Cohen Brothers Inc., SK Construction Co., Hart
Industries Inc., Contech Construction Products Inc., Cinergy Corp.,
Smurfit-Stone Corp.-Carton and AK Steel Corp.
Finally, the Group Awards are given to the companies with the
lowest incident rate in each group. These are General Chemical Corp.,
Mecco Incorporated, SK Construction Co., Smurfit-Stone Corp. and AK
Steel Corp. The award-winners receive a certificate and recognition
from the state, said Safety Council’s Executive Director Cheryl Gast.
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Contech buys Alaskan drainage pipe firm
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Solutions celebrates lab achievement
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Midd-Cities restores life to ex-Armco storage
site
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Smurfit Stone wins Smurfit Stone container Corp., which has a solid Middletown presence, is celebrating it’s standing as the safest paper industry employer in the Unites States, the company said. The company completed its safest year, emerging with a 2.0 recordable case rate, according to the American Forest & Paper Association. Recordable case rates represent the number of accidents per 100 full-time employees. The average paper-based packaging company rate in 2001 was 3.2, Smurfit Stone said in a statement. "We are proud of our No.1 ranking, and everyone in the organization deserves commendation for his or her commitment to the process," company spokesman Derrell Carter said earlier this week. A local facility at 407 Charles St. employs about 300 workers, 140 in a folding carton plant and 160 in a boxboard mill. The company also has a public arts office at 2205 S. Verity Parkway. The Middletown plant had a 1.7 recordable case rate in 2001, improving over 2000’s rate of 2.2, Carter said. Smurfit Stone said 66 of its facilities had no accidents in 2001. Four of its facilities won awards for their class from the Pulp and Paper Safety Association for their 2001 performance, the company said. And Smurfit Stone facilities won six of 14 safety awards presented by the Fibre Box Association for 2001, the company said. The Chicago-based company has about 300 facilities worldwide with
about 38,500 workers. The firm reported sales for the first quarter of
2002 of $1.9 billion compared with $2.2 billion in the first quarter
of 2001.
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Woodworker knows no
boundaries Recker’s business grows to $1.2M in 2001 sales. Recker Custom Woodworks owner Gary Recker has two more floors in his 1210 Girard Ave. building to grow into. It’s a good thing. Grow, it seems, is all Recker does. Recker, 36, started from his Aberdeen Drive garage. Now in it’s 10th year, his woodworking shop has grown from one to 22 full-time employees, and today he has two fabricating shops in Dayton, besides company offices and a fabricating shop on Girard. Recker bought the brick, four-floor building, built in 18+9, from Dick Capozzi in 1993. The 40,000-square-foot building- Recker uses about 26,000 square feet – has proved perfect for aesthetic and geographic reasons, Recker said. He values the wood floors and rafters; he likes being able to serve customers in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus from a central location. "It couldn’t have been any more easy to get started," Recker said. Sales in Recker’s first year of business were a relatively scant $50,000. Last year, Recker saw $1.2 million in sales. This year: He expects sales of up to $1.6 million. "We just kept growing," Recker said. "We couldn’t stop almost." "I recommend him to numerous people," said Don Hawkins owner of Middletown Security Systems. Recker built bookcases and file cases for Hawkins’ home and office, Hawkins said. He was a Recker customer about seven years ago before he hired Recker again last year. "I liked his work, and he did what he said he would do, as far as I’m concerned," Hawkins said. Talk to Recker’s customers and that becomes a refrain. Recker said he has been "blessed" with good customers. In fact, his standard contract is only a paragraph long, he said. "We take whatever your dream is and we create it," he said. Recker is getting attention these days. A Mid-Miami Valley Chamber of Commerce "business after hours" gathering was held at his Girard shop Thursday. The gatherings are held each month at a different location, hosted by chamber members. Recker admitted that his prices could be on the high side. But for a good reason; He insists that he doesn’t cut corners. He is choosy with wood supplies. None of his wood fabricating is computer controlled, although drawings and rendering are done on computer. And he continues to invest. He is debuting a $92,000 molding line, which will open another craftsmen position at the business. A potential customer focused on cost above all may end up looking elsewhere, Recker said. But quality remains his goal. Recker pointed to color photographs – some saves as computer monitor screen savers around his office – of past jobs. One basement bar cost $90,000, he said. "We don’t have any boundaries." He said.
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2002 Small Business Awards Preview Keir Educational Resources Founded: 1968 Family members put good of company first. For more than 30 years, Keir Educational
Resources of Middletown has been writing and producing study materials
for people seeking designations in the insurance and financial
services industries. Nye said it’s important for family business to be unselfish when making decisions and give up individual wants for the good of the company. “Every family is different,” Nye said, “Ours is
an incredibly loving family, and we can have horrible disagreements in
shareholder meeting and two hours later have a wonder time at a family
dinner.
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AK Steel Again Named to Fortune
Magazine’s According to Fortune, the rankings are the result of surveys turned in by 10,000 executives, directors and securities analysts. The surveys measure eight criteria: innovation, financial soundness, employee talent, long-term investment value, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management and quality of products and services. "We are pleased once again to be recognized for the attributes our management, employees, customers, communities and shareholders hold in high regard,” said Richard M. Wardrop, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer. In addition to being named to Fortune’s Most Admired Companies list, AK Steel’s new carbon and stainless steels coated with an antimicrobial coating were also recognized recently by Popular Science magazine as one of the winners in its Best of What’s New awards for home technology for 2001. Last year AK Steel became the first steel company to achieve Star designation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for its safety program; and the first steel company in the United States to achieve ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management systems. AK Steel produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products for automotive, appliance, construction and manufacturing markets, as well as standard pipe and tubular steel products. For more information about AK Steel visit our web site at aksteel.com
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AK Steel's AgION™ Antimicrobial-Coated Steels Named One of the "Best of What's New" By Popular Science Magazine Bacteria Resistant Steels Win Distinguished Award in Home Technology Category MIDDLETOWN, OH-November 13-Popular Science magazine has named AK Steel's AgION™ antimicrobial-coated steels as one of nine winners of the Best of What's New award in home technology for 2001. Popular Science chose AK Steel's antimicrobial-coated steel as one of 100 winners from thousands of new products and technology innovations reviewed this year. According to the magazine, each award winner represents a significant step forward in its category. More importantly, each Best of What's New winner must in some way improve the quality of life-whether the product or technology is intended to entertain, heal the sick or advance the body of human knowledge. "The Best of What's New issue offers our readers a comprehensive guide to the year's most interesting and noteworthy technical and scientific accomplishments," says Popular Science editor-in-chief Scott Mowbray. AK Steel, the nation's leading integrated steel company, manufactures a full line of flat rolled stainless and carbon steels coated with the AgION antimicrobial compound. The antimicrobial-coated steel suppresses the growth of a broad array of destructive microbes including bacteria, mold and fungus. The AgION antimicrobial compound, from Boston area-based AgION Technologies, is an advanced inorganic material containing silver ions within a zeolite structure. Together they form a safe antimicrobial agent. When moisture is present, the zeolite acts as an ion pump providing controlled release of silver ions into the environment. This controlled release provides continuous antimicrobial protection. "We are honored to receive this prestigious award from Popular Science, the world's largest circulated science and technology magazine," said Richard M. Wardrop, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of AK Steel. "AK Steel developed this innovative product to help manufacturers meet consumer demand for microbe-resistant products. AK Steel's antimicrobial-coated steels represent one cost effective way to meet this demand and to help inhibit the growth of destructive bacteria." To illustrate the benefits of antimicrobial-coated steels, AK Steel is helping build a concept home outside Los Angeles. Several applications will use AK Steel's new product including the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and "high-touch zones" throughout the home-from appliances, handrails and doorknobs to faucets, food preparation surfaces and a 6,000-bottle wine cellar. In total, about 30,000 pounds of various AK Steel products will be used in the 11,000-square-foot home. More information about the concept home is available at www.akconcepthome.com. Other winners of the Best of What's New award include Ford, Sony, Black & Decker, and Boeing. Popular Science, the world's largest science and technology magazine, is currently published in seven languages worldwide, with a circulation of more than one and a half million in the U.S. alone. Popular Science is published by Time4 Media a subsidiary of Time Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: AOL). With headquarters in Middletown, Ohio, AK Steel produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products for automotive, appliance, construction and manufacturing markets, as well as standard pipe and tubular steel products. AK Steel employs about 11,500 people in plants and offices in Middletown, Coshocton, Mansfield, Walbridge, Warren and Zanesville, Ohio; Ashland, Kentucky; Rockport, Indiana; and Butler, Sharon and Wheatland, Pennsylvania. For more information access www.aksteel.com. AgION™ antimicrobial is not intended as a substitute for good hygiene. Coated products must still be cleaned to insure the surfaces will be free of destructive microbes, AK Steel makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the efficacy of AgION™ antimicrobial, which is a registered trademark of AgION Technologies, LLC. Media Contacts:
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Airbus will give Aeronca a lift Magellan Aerospace Corp.’s selection to make engine exhaust nozzles for the new Airbus A380 aircraft is good news for Middletown’s Aeronca, which will see a substantial chunk of that work. "The vast majority of it will be done in Middletown," Bill Matthews, Magellan’s vice president, marketing, said Monday. "Both the development work and the production." The contract is worth $110 million in U.S. currency, $160 million Canadian for Toronto-based Magellan. Magellan owns Aeronca Inc., a subcontractor that makes aircraft engines and structure parts. Design work on the nozzles, which will go on the A380 superjumbo airliner, already has started, Matthews said. Final production of the airplanes will begin in France in late 2005, which means production work on the nozzles may take place in Middletown in mid-2005, Matthews said. The contract is significant both for its value and its duration, Matthews said. "It is a new contract, and it will have a long life," he said. Asked if the contract might mean new jobs in Middletown, he said, "I suppose that’s a possibility when the production starts." Matthews could not say how many jobs might be created. Aeronca has 242 employees today. Magellan expects to see revenue from the contract until 2021, Matthews said. The titanium nozzles will be made for the Rolls-Royce and Engine Alliance engines for the 555-passenger airplanes. The nozzles require "precise management of complex processes for exotic materials," Magellan said in a statement. Aeronca, which has 39 acres and several facilities around Hook Field Municipal Airport, has a rich history in Middletown. Started in 1928, the company was well known for making light airplanes. It made the Aeronca Grasshopper in World War II. Aeronca General Manager Ken Hanson could not be reached for comment Monday. Published 05.13.03
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By Michael Kurtz, Journal Staff Writer, E-mail:
mkurtz@coxohio.com
An official at Middletown-based Aeronca Inc., manufacturers of a part on the space shuttle Columbia, said company officials are waiting to see if they will be needed for NASA’s investigation of Saturday’s tragedy. As a subcontractor for now-defunct Fairchild Republic, Aeronca built conical seal panels for the shuttle between 1981 and 1983. "The panels closed out the aft portion of the vertical stabilizer in front of the rudder," said Aeronca program manager Keith Wyman, reading from a prepared statement. "We are standing by to provide information to NASA should they request it. "Meanwhile, we would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the astronauts." Bill Matthews, vice president of marketing for Aeronca parent company Magellan Aerospace Corp., on Monday said NASA had not contacted the Ontario, Toronto headquarters, or Aeronca. Preliminary investigations by NASA are pointing to loose, damaged tiles and subsequent heat rises as the possible cause of the explosion. The part manufactured by Aeronca is not expected to have played a part in Saturday’s accident. The part is designed to fill the 80-foot gap between the rudder and vertical stabilizer, serve as a brake, and keep heat from penetrating the stabilizer structure. Matthews said the company has a clean safety record in both the aerospace and commercial fields. Aeronca, 1712 Germantown Road, employs 230 people in the field of structural aerospace manufacturing. Matthews said he expects the Columbia disaster and any delays of the space program to have a minimal effect on the companies’ financial situation. Magellan still has contracts with the space program, including payloads for shuttles involved in the international space station project. But the majority of contracts are with commercial companies and the U.S. Department of Defense, he said. Some of those involved with the Aeronca shuttle project watched in shock and sadness as seven astronauts died on a vehicle they helped build. Paul Myers, formerly of Middletown and now living in North Carolina, was Aeronca’s shuttle program engineer and helped construct Columbia’s tail seal panels. "I couldn’t believe it," Myers said about the tragedy. "If the tail had been involved, I don’t know what I would have thought." Since its founding in 1940, Aeronca has been a major behind-the-scenes player in some of the space program’s highest-profile endeavors. It worked on the S12B rocket boosters and made the heat shields for the Apollo program command modules, in addition to work done for the shuttle program. Matthews said those who are involved in the space program, in any capacity, realize the dangers but strive for the ultimate in safety. "I hope, on the spiritual level, that the program goes forward," he said. "It’s part of the development of mankind. The reason there are people in North America is because people got the wanderlust." Published 02.04.03
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AK Steel Invests $5M in
Build-to-Order Inc. AK Steel Corp. has invested $5 million in Build-To-Order Inc., a company touting itself as the first producer of true build-to-order vehicles. The Middletown-based steelmaker is the first outside investor in Build-To-Order, a San Francisco-area company formed in May. “We’re overwhelmed with (investor) interest,” Build-To-Order Chairman Scott Painter said Wednesday. Build-To-Order will offer customers a chance to order an array of options at computers, ordering coupes, convertibles, station wagons, sedans or sport utility vehicles, Painter said. Customers will be welcome at Build-To-Order “experience centers” to see and drive company vehicles, he said. Fourteen days after ordering, he said, new vehicles will be delivered. “The car isn’t built until you order it,” he said. Build-To-Order will need to sell just over 6,000 cars a year to be profitable, he said. Brands and designs are being developed; Painter expects the first Build-To-Order automobile to roll off an assembly line by 2004. In a statement, AK Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard M. Wardrop Jr. said AK’s investment is one in “the building blocks of a second generation of automotive manufacturing.” “We are eager to apply AK Steel’s renowned carbon and stainless automotive steel expertise to the product design and manufacturing innovation that will define Build-To-Order’s niche in the industry,” he said. AK Vice President of Public Affairs Alan McCoy said the investment is consistent with AK’s strengths: value-added steel and forward-looking technologies. Painter said Build-To-Order will rely on established suppliers and new technologies, such as AK’s stainless-steel space frames, which McCoy said decrease weight and increase strength. McCoy said the frames may be “a fairly radical change from traditional manufacturing and design,” but AK’s leaders believe they have potential. Build-To-Order was born of the acquisition of Model E Corp. and Flint Inc., new independent automotive companies, Painter said. The goal is offering new vehicles on a “modular platform,” with an eye toward what the company’s Web site calls “breakthrough product design.” Founders include Painter, founder and former CEO of CarsDirect.com, and William Santana Li, founder and former CEO of Model E Corp., as well as a former Ford Motor Co. executive. Painter said representatives of AK
had talked with Model E about investment opportunities before
Build-To-Order’s founding.
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Butler County among tops in places to live Middletown-Hamilton ranked 2nd in Ohio By Jessica Brown The Hamilton Middletown area has been raked the No. 2 best place to live and work in Ohio for the second year in a row, according to the Forbes/Milken Institute. Dayton-Springfield ranked 173rd in the annual list of 200 U.S. metropolitan area. The latest government data for employment technology and wage growth during one and five-year periods are considered. The institute also added a job momentum category this year that tracked employment during the first quarter of 2002 to gauge how the areas were handling the effects of Sept. 11 and the slowing economy of 2001. "We are very proud of this," Butler County Commissioner Courtney Combs said. "We feel we have a good Story to tell and a good place to live obviously the word is getting out." Columbus ranked No. 1 in Ohio, followed by Hamilton-Middletown, Cincinnati and Canton. The ranking bodes well for retention and recruitment of people and jobs in Hamilton and Butler County, said Mel Less, President of the Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. "In this case, the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence," Less said. "This (listing) will help get the word out." Butler County is likely to see higher future rankings in the area of technology because of such projects as the county’s fiber optics network, Less said. Middletown Chamber of Commerce President David Daugherty said the rating should come as no surprise to the people who live here. "We know what the growth rate is for Butler County and Warren counties and you can see where you have a great future ahead of us, "Daugherty said." "You have all the arts and culture in Cincinnati and Dayton to pull from… You can really see why sitting in the middle of that bodes well for Butler and Warren counties. In 2000, the Hamilton-Middletown area was ranked No.1 in Ohio, but fell to No.2 in 2001 behind Columbus. Nationally, the Hamilton-Middletown area is ranked at No.94, beating out Cincinnati (131), Canton (147), Akron (154), Cleveland (172), Toledo (174) and Youngstown/Warren (199). Columbus ranked No. 66 nationally.
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Middletown to look beyond
manufacturing
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Intended to entice motorist to city. A new billboard on northbound Interstate 75 is meant to turn motorists' heads, and minds, to Middletown. At least, that's the hope of Larry Wood, Executive director of Middletown Economic Development Corp., the public-private body created to draw business to the city. The billboard, on which work was completed last week, names Middletown as the "Heart of Southwest Ohio." A drawing on the right side places a heart on a stretch of road between Dayton and Cincinnati. "It's going to be interesting to see what people think," said David Daugherty, a member of the corporation's board of directors and president of Mid-Miami Valley Chamber of Commerce. Wood knows that by the time most see the billboard, they will likely have passed exit 32. But it's the message that matters, he believes. "I don't expect anyone just to drive off (I-75) and say, 'Oh, I didn't know you were here,''' Wood said. He said the billboard's location was chosen because it was available. Wood has heard no response to the billboard yet. But he sounds pleased. "As far as I know, it's the first time Middletown has done anything like that to make our presence known," he said. Daugherty said that's a reason the chamber and the city of Middletown created the corporation: to get the word "Middletown" in minds and on lips. "They see 'Middletown,' and that begins to plant in their mind,: he said of drivers. The corporation's effort includes ads in business journals, on the radio and sponsorship of Miami University athletics. The Billboard will be up for a year, Wood said. His board approved a contract to place the board last month.
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Middletown City Council's approval of a wider enterprise zone stretching over much of the city's burgeoning East End is a way to lure "good quality jobs," the head of the area's public-private development body said Wednesday. "If you don't have it (the wider zone), you're not going to necessarily attract the kind of investment that you're looking for," said Larry Wood, executive director of Middletown Economic Development Corp. Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the zone's expansion to 1,239.5 acres around Ohio 122 and Interstate 75, with 75 percent of the area east of the interstate. Approval by the Ohio Department of Development is needed, but Middletown Acting Development Director Jung-Han Chen expects no problem there. The zone is designed to draw light industrial and office jobs. It lets Middletown government exempt businesses from real estate and personal property taxes on new investments in buildings and equipment. The idea is to lure companies -- and jobs -- to certain parts of the city. Once approved by the state, the zone -- which Middletown first established in 1984 -- will stretch from the city's northwest section around the Great Miami River, south and east across AK Steel's Middletown Works, and further east to a Warren County area Middletown annexed in 1997. The zone has helped create 393 jobs and keep 3,389 jobs in the city since its inception, council was told in a staff report. Creation of retail jobs would not qualify for the zone's tax-easing benefit, Chen and Wood said. Though city officials have been poised for more than a year to welcome a new Wal-Mart store near I-75 and Ohio 122 -- and though a Tennessee developer said in June that a siting agreement with the retailer was near -- no definitive announcement has come from Wal-Mart. George Davidson, senior vice president of developer Horne Properties, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In June, he told The Journal that the signing of a lease agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could be two weeks away.
John Bisio, Wal-Mart's community affairs manager for the
upper Midwest, could not be reached Wednesday. |
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By Joseph Roberts, Journal Staff Writer, E-mail:
jroberts@coxohio.com
Moments after the last precincts were counted, Superintendent Steve Price told supporters gathered at Stefano’s Holiday House that the passage of the bond and construction of new buildings will bring Middletown closer to a goal of becoming the first urban district in Ohio to be rated “excellent” on its state report card. “This is a huge step toward attaining that goal,” he said. “We’re going to get it. Things are happening in Middletown.” Campaign Manager Nancy Nix, also Middletown’s vice mayor, told bond-backers Tuesday’s celebration was a turn-around from the outlook at the effort’s beginning. “When we started this, the attitude was, ‘It’s dead,”’ she said. “This is so great for our city, and we needed this so badly.” The 4.5-mill, 28-year issue will generate money needed to construct six new elementary schools and renovate two of Middletown’s existing school buildings into two more elementary schools. The increase in property tax is expected to cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $11.50 more per month, or $138 per year, according to school officials. Price attributed the success of the issue to the “Invest in Tomorrow Committee,” which organized the grass roots campaign. “They deserve all the accolades, the committee and the staff that worked tirelessly to get this done,” he said. “We didn’t leave any stones unturned with this campaign.” School officials have long complained that falling ceiling tiles, small classrooms, electrical systems that have reached their capacities and can no longer provide power for more computers, leaky roofs, unreliable public address systems and old pneumatic boilers, among other problems, have adversely impacted learning in the district. Joe DiStaola, the school district’s coordinator of business affairs, has overseen the maintenance of the schools since 1985. He will retire at the end of this year and joked that the bond’s passage was a great retirement gift, but a bigger gift for the city. “It’s something that’s overdue, and I’m sure it’s going to make Middletown a better place to live,” he said. Todd Thackery, an architect who has consulted for the school district, said construction should start in about a year. The design phase of the project will begin immediately. Price said the community will have an opportunity to give input during that process. State assistance will cover 26 percent of the cost for new elementary schools through the state Department of Education’s construction reimbursement program. Local businesses would pay for about 54 percent of issue, leaving about 24 percent of the cost to citizens. Supporters of the bond issue said the future of not just of the district, but Middletown itself, was at stake at the polls. They have noted the quality of a city’s schools as an important factor in drawing residential and economic growth. “This represents a win for our students first and foremost, and our staff, but it also represents a win for the citizens of Middletown,” Price said. “This will allow us to have facilities that will give our kids the best opportunity to succeed.” Published 11.05.03
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Funding for school upgrades locked in! By Joseph Roberts, Journal Staff Writer,The Middletown Board of Education formalized an agreement with the state Monday, under which the latter will help the district pay for building improvements. The resolution describes the district’s $150.8 million master plan to upgrade facilities at every grade level, and defines the state’s share of the funding as 26 percent — paid through a reimbursement — and the local share as 74 percent. “This takes into account the entire K through 12 plan, and not just what’s on the ballot tomorrow,” Treasurer Ed Pokora said Monday. The master plan includes six new and two renovated elementary schools, the subject of the $75.8 million bond issue voters will decide today. The plan also includes the construction of a new Middletown High School, renovation of the current one into a middle school, and renovation of Vail Middle School’s addition as the new location of Garfield Alternative Education Center. These improvements would be paid for through a second bond issue some time in the future. The board also approved a resolution to set aside 0.5 mills over a period of 23 years to maintain the new buildings, as required by the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission. Pokora said the district would likely delay establishing the fund and include the 0.5 mills in the second bond. Members of the board also encouraged citizens to vote today, and to support the bond issue. Published 11.04.03
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Forecast: Area job growth to jump by ’10
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