Progress 2015 Part I Section 01

Economic Outlook/Energy Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015

Progress Edition I — Section 1

Please Drink Responsibly 2680 Commercial Ave, Mingo Jct., OH

Contributed

The former Wheeling Corrugating plant at Beech Bottom went out of service in 2012 as a steel corrugating factory. It now is home to five firms including Jupiter Aluminum, two pipeline companies and a transportation logistics company. Work continues on remediation of a small portion of the site for continued redevelopment work. The Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle played a role in arranging financing and obtaining cleanup grants for the site.

BDC’s priority list forever changing, expanding

By PAUL GIANNAMORE Staff writer

Pat Ford arrived as executive director of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle five years ago, and he was given a list of three priorities: Reorganize the board of directors to represent the entire Northern Panhandle, prepare a plan and make deals.

That list has swelled to more than 30 items filling a whiteboard wall in the BDC offices on Pennsylvania Avenue. Ford noted that when an economic cluster study was done five years ago to point the way to economic diversification, items to focus on included health care and social assistance; energy; manufacturing; education and knowledge creation; transportation and logistics; and business and financial services.

“Who would have thought energy would be driving our agenda to the magnitude it is today,” he said.

Among the top priorities for the past year and in the coming months has been the increased presence of the BDC in social media. Ford said the BDC’s Facebook presence is used as an education and marketing platform including links to information about the latest in business and economic development nationally and internationally. It’s all part of preparing the region for development, Ford said, and that process begins with

development sites.

Three years ago, Ford said, the BDC had no notable sites of its own, and the Northern Panhandle, geographically the smallest economic development area in the Tri-State region, consisted largely of “mills or hills.” Acquiring available sites became a priority, leading to the acquisition of places such as Hancock County’s former high school football stadiums in Weirton and Newell, as well as the old volunteer fire station on Pennsylvania Avenue. The former Oak Glen stadium in Newell is being remade into a large dealership for Hancock County Chrylser-DodgeJeep-Ram, while Domino’s Pizza has announced it will be using the former fire station to make a prototype of a new kind of Domino’s “theater style” restaurant with a dine-in option. The Chrysler development occurred just six months after the BDC acquired the old Oak Glen stadium property.

Ford said the social media presence helps raise awareness among site selectors that the Northern Panhandle now has sites, a key ingredient in the sweepstakes to land new business.

Selectors no longer

pay visits to areas initially.

Instead, they look online at an area for pictures and information about an available site, and narrow their lists.

“By the time they visit you, you possibly have made it to their top three or five sites,” Ford said.

The social media presence also emphasizes quality-of-life information, including testimonial videos and YouTube videos from companies and citizens as well as the usual data about crime and education and infrastructure available to a site.

Ford said the online presence is aided with funding from the state development office and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

Ford noted the collaborative partnerships in Brooke and Hancock counties over the past five years has generated $2.1 million in grants in addition to $1.4 million in applications pending.

“We cannot get the money without our partners in the Brooke-Hancock Regional Council, West

Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, West Virginia Economic Development Authority, West Virginia Development Office and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Even more critical than the financial and technical assistance received by our partners is the demonstrated local involvement of our own board of directors.

Time and again, the BDC board of directors has shown the stamina, technical capacity and guts, to go after the money and hold to our mission,” Ford said. “So long as we continue to illustrate all of that, we will continue to have a good success rate” in obtaining brownfield redevelopment, philanthropic and economic development grants, he said.

“That’s what I’m most proud of to date. It’s not just getting money and business and sites. The partnerships enable us to create the opportunities.” he said. Ford said the BDC was labeled years ago as being centered on Weirton.

Now, members come from Chester, New Cumberland, Weirton, Bethany and Beech Bottom and the board of directors includes representatives of business and government from Brooke and Hancock counties and the governor’s office. “Partnerships are the sole reason we’re able to see any success,” Ford said.

CHESTER AND NEWELL The former TS&T Pottery site presents one of the most dramatic possibilities for the Northern Panhandle, with the BDC’s involvement resulting in environmental cleanup of decades of what was left behind when the pottery closed in 1981.

“We’ve got a $1.2 million committed investment to date,” Ford said. That includes using $40,000 of BDC funds to leverage more than $1.1 million in loans and grants from HanSee BDC Page 2A ➪

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Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015

BDC Continued from Page 1A

cock County, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Benedum Foundation.

Ford said the site shows the importance of environmental cleanup in redevelopment.

“Private companies can’t get conventional financing for a dirty site,” he said. BDC now has interest in the site, including a firm that wants to locate a plant and corporate offices at the old TS&T site, with emphasis on the Ohio River vistas for the offices.

The cleanup comes through brownfields grants, including money spent to raise awareness and educate property owners and the public about the importance and process of environmental cleanup, as well as marketing the properties. Most of the money came through the assistance of the Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center and has run from 2010 to date.

A grant to clean the riverbank area to complete the site cleanup is being sought, with the assistance of the brownfields center and Civil and Environmental Consultants, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm, with a decision to come later in 2015.

The BDC acquired the TS&T site in 2012. The keys to its redevelopment include the advantage of the river views and access to U.S. Route 30 and state Route 2, while being sensitive to the residential area at the northern end of the site.

Overall, Ford said, “Chester is in a sweet spot between the Marcellus field in Pennsylvania and the Utica play in Ohio. It has a vibrant business district, access to state Route 2 and U.S. Route 30, and it provides a beautiful face for the gateway into West Virginia,” he said. “We have high hopes for the prospects for this site.”

SHALE PLAY He said while falling gas prices and the pullout of Chesapeake Energy could have been a cause for worry, the $5 billion purchase of Chesapeake’s leases by SouthWest Energy, as well as an anticipated increasing number of drilling rigs through 2017, bode well for the

Contributed

John Frankovitch, left, and former Hancock County commissioner Dan Greathouse hold the site plan for the new Hancock County Chrysler-Dodge-Ram, which is being built on the former Oak Glen stadium site. The Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle obtained the stadium site for redevelopment, paying back funds to Hancock County on the sale of the site.

region.

He said there has been a split in the temporary and permanent presence of prospects and employers relating to the shale fields. There are transloading and transportation logistics companies handling what comes out of the wells that will need a presence for several years and other firms seeking a permanent home interested in our region, in the form of petrochemical companies, fabrication companies, welding shops and environmental firms. He said there are a half-dozen fabricators seeking a presence in the area at the present.

Still on the table are the downstream firms that would make polymers and chemicals out of the gas. Hancock County and northern Brooke County, he said, could serve those firms well because of the availability of railroad service. Southern Brooke County is better positioned to serve fabricators and other manufacturing companies that aren’t as rail dependent.

Ford said there is a resurgence of value-added steel products, too. “All of the Ohio Valley, in Ohio and West Virginia, makes and handles steel and adds value to steel better than anyone else in the world,” Ford said. Companies from around the world are “coming back home” to the former steelmaking center.

And Ford said the region will benefit from a cracker, the plant that separates the gas from the wells into compounds that can be used for chemicals, plastics and other industries.

“We’re still in the mix,” he said.

He said there are as many as five sites possible in West Virginia, including a couple in the BDC’s area. The cracker would represent a $5 billion investment, 10,000 construction jobs and about 400 permanent jobs. The facility would attract firms to its region to be close to their supply of materials.

He said a cracker will be built in West Virginia, Ohio or Pennsylvania to be close to the source of gas, but there are three major concerns: ¯ As much as 400 acres of flat and clean ground are necessary. ¯ Available infrastructure, including river access to float in the materials to build the plant, and rail and roadway access once the plant is built. ¯ The incentive packages from the states.

He said West Virginia is in the mix to identify and prepare sites and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and the state secretary of commerce are working aggressively on packaging the necessary incentives — “More than on any deal in the history of West Virginia. They’re not leaving anything on the table,” Ford said.

He said the size of the shale fields means that there should be a need for more than one crack-

er plant, but the construction will depend on timing and market conditions.

“It’s such big money. Companies can buy land and study and find it cheaper to walk away.

After all, $27 million out of a $5 billion project isn’t much,” he said. Ford said development of the potential cracker at Parkersburg is happening faster than the nearby Monaca, Pa., proposal, but either one would take advantage of the Northern Panhandle as a central location along the Ohio River, meaning fabricators and polymer companies will come here.

He said the polymer companies would want to pick sites and build during the three-to-four year construction time of the cracker, and they’d need sites of 20 to 100 acres, which do exist in the area.

“We have sites that are flat, and the abandoned mills are being taken down, the hazards are being taken out of the soil and the infrastructure is in place. We will be aggressive this year in preparing sites for business and industry,” Ford said. And, he said, West Virginia Northern and Eastern Gateway community colleges are continuing to develop the work force through continuing education and training for the jobs that are here while staying abreast about training for the jobs that are to come.

NEW CUMBERLAND Ford said Mountaineer Race Track, Casino and Resort has been a blessing for the Northern Panhandle as an employer and by providing money to the Hancock County Commission to spend on economic development.

Referring specifically to New Cumberland and Newell, Ford said the presence of Norfolk Southern rail service helps attract employers.

He noted two major companies left New Cumberland in 2014, but both sites have potential. He said New Cumberland’s mayor and council have helped economic development efforts in our region by removing abandoned and dilapidated structures and working with the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning CommisSee BDC Page 3A ➪

Contributed

A railcar is serviced in the Trimodal Terminal at Follansbee, which is home to three energy-related tenants and room for further development. The terminal is a privateowned facility linking rail, river and highway transportation.

Contributed

Pat Ford, director of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle, makes an announcement in the ongoing effort to redevelop Brooke Glass at Wellsburg.

Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015

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BDC sion on water and sewer improvements. Furthermore, “New Cumberland has a lovely housing stock and charm and will be a big winner. It’s a matter of time,” Ford said.

he said.

Ford said the land is similar to what has become the Settlers Ridge area off the Parkway West at U.S. Route 22 in Robinson Township, Pa. He said the BDC board wants to WEIRTON study the feasibility of constructing In addition to the BDC work to a service road to connect Three get the old Pennsylvania Avenue Springs to Colliers Way and to open fire station reused, there is interest the land for development, as well as in the former Jimmy Carey Stadium to study what kinds of development site downtown for new industry. could work well on the available Even greater than these base hits, land there.

Weirton has river, rail and water Another development site holding access and infrastructure available great potential, he said, is the forbecause of the surplus properties of mer Sheetz site at Penco Road the ArcelorMittal plant that are on and Cove Road. When the market for purchase. He said linked to other adjaefforts continue with ArcelorMittal cent properties, on opportunities for redevelopment it becomes a of the surplus properties of the viable steel plant site, which is being regu- site at larly shown to prospects. He said one of the work in the area on brownfield the redevelopment proves what can be busiest done to get money to clean up sites, intersecincluding the major work that would tions in the be needed at the century-old steelregion, Ford making site to accommodate emerg- said. The BDC ing industries in economy. board is workWeirton’s Three Springs Business ing with the Park is the planned home to Pietro property owners Fiorentini SA. They have identified to explore economa site in the Three Springs Business ic development Park. Currently working out of tem- opportunities. porary facilities in Wheeling, Work also is under Fiorentini, which makes equipment way to assess what can vital to the oil and gas industry, be done with the Magnone Building signed an option on 17 acres in 2014 and former Weirton Daily Times and should close on the property Building at Main Street and Lee this year, Ford said. The West VirAvenue. These two properties colginia Economic Development lectively hold great potential for a Authority provided $1 million for a catalytic project in downtown Weirtotal $2.2 million in equipment that ton. The BDC continues to work the company is using in Wheeling with the city of Weirton, Top of now. That equipment will be moved West Virginia Convention and Visito Weirton to provide up to 110 jobs tors Bureau, Hancock County Comin a 70,000-square-foot building mission and property owners to expandable to 100,000 square feet. explore opportunities to redevelop Ford said the jobs have an average these sites. salary of $50,000 a year.

He said Barney’s Bakery is movRue 21, also located in the Three ing toward a possible fall groundSprings Business Park, added 40 breaking in Weirton, too. A potential jobs at its distribution center, $1.6 million investment will prewhere its e-commerce division went serve 25 jobs and add 10, Ford said. into operation. This addition came The Centerpoint Terminal at Half at the tail end of the $8.1 million Moon Industrial Park has taken the 180,000-square-foot addition that former Weirton Steel tank farm and created 90 new jobs. put it to use, storing crude taken Ford also continues to have hopes from the shale fields. Some 125 of a long-term development of land trucks bring in crude around the south of U.S. Route 22 between Col- clock, where it’s stored and then liers Way and Three Springs Drive. loaded onto barges destined for the “It would be a new town in town,” Gulf Coast, Ford explained.

Contributed

An artist’s rendering of Domino’s new Weirton site on Pennsylvania Avenue shows the new “theater” style sit-down restaurant at a former fire station building. The old Weirton Heights volunteer fire station was acquired by the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle to market for development.

Weirton continues to attract national developers, including not only the expanded Domino’s but also Dollar General and Dunkin’ Donuts. More hotels and restaurants also are eyeing the city.

“Market studies show more rooms are needed,” he said.

FOLLANSBEE “Follansbee has the hottest multimodal site between Pittsburgh and Wheeling,” Ford said referencing the Trimodal Terminal site. “Jim Joseph and Scotty Ewusiak have been doing great work there.”

The site provides river barge access, as well as rail and state Route 2 access. So far, it has three energy-related tenants, Ford said, with inquiries coming in constantly.

“It’s one of only two private multimodal facilities between Pittsburgh and Wheeling, with available economic development opportunities in West Virginia,” Ford said.

WELLSBURG The Brooke Glass redevelopment effort is continuing as the most recent acquisition by the BDC, purchased in March. The U.S. EPA has provided money for environmental assessment, and Wellsburg has obtained money from the Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center and the Benedum Foundation to raise awareness of the redevelopment potential.

Wellsburg officials, he said, illustrated the value of the site and the BDC bought it and obtained $70,000 for a brownfield assessment grant in 2014. Now, $200,000 is being sought for the cleanup of the site.

He credited Joe Eddy for investment and expansion of Eagle Manufacturing, which has 175 employees and has expanded in the past two years. An $85,000 EPA assessment grant was used as part of the growth, Ford noted.

At Brooke Hills Park, a $50,000

Continued from Page 2A study, commissioned by the Brooke County Park and Recreation Board, is under way to determine the feasibility of the development of a lodge.

A consultant has been chosen to perform the feasibility study. The study should be completed this spring.

HOUSING While the BDC is concentrated on business and industry, Ford said there’s a realization that good housing stock helps attract companies because employees need places to live. A pilot project has been undertaken in Beech Bottom, where donated supplies and services and favorable financing through Hancock Savings Bank enabled prequalification of a homeowner for a refurbishing of a house. The house, conveyed to the BDC from Wells Fargo, was a recent foreclosure in the Wells Fargo real estate portfolio.

At the request of Beech Bottom Mayor Becky Uhlly and the Village Council, the BDC has taken on the project and hopes to be finished in February.

“It’s a little outside our mission, but some of the properties we own are surrounded by abandoned or dilapidated properties. This pilot project improves their curb appeal while improving the housing stock for incoming employees,” Ford explained. “Housing is part of the economic development equation.”

The hope is to get the pilot program started and become independent of the BDC’s economic development efforts.

BEECH BOTTOM The former Wheeling Corrugating Co. site was a $4.4 million acquisition by the BDC in 2012-13. A $500,000 investment by Hackman Capital, based in Los Angeles, to bring public water and sewer to the site and repair the roof of the former mill, another $55,000 investor outlay to cleanup some of the more hazardous materials on site, as well as a $225,000 brownfield assessment grant, have helped in the reuse of the site.

A small area of the land still needs to be cleaned up and an asbestos-laced building requires remediation to realize the full See BDC Page 4A ➪

Contributed

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., left, joined a delegation including representatives of Hackman Capital, Jupiter Aluminum and BDC Director Pat Ford on a tour of Jupiter Aluminum’s line in the former Wheeling Corrugating plant at Beech Bottom.

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Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015

BDC Continued from Page 3A

potential of the site. A $200,000 grant is being sought for that work.

Ford noted there are five tenants on the site, including a transportation logistics company, two pipeline companies and Jupiter Aluminum.

The BDC has invested more than $200,000 with Hackman Capital investing more than $5 million into the Brooke County site.

Furthermore, $3 million has been invested by Jupiter to breathe life back into this struggling mill.

“This was a mill that was left for dead in 2012,” Ford said.

BETHANY New housing is being studied to meet increased demand for Bethany College staff and educators. Ford said that officials in Bethany have told him that professors want to live there, but there is little housing available. “It’s a lovely community, and we are working with Bethany College to explore the opportunity to construct market-rate housing for faculty,” Ford added.

The BDC also is working with the Bethany Planning Commission to refine strategies to revitalize the business district. The Bethany Planning Commission is developing strategies to coordinate redevelopment efforts with the college, create active and passive community gathering places on Main Street, remove abandoned and dilapidated houses, market Main Street properties for economic development and leverage grant money for public improvements. The planning commission has shown great commitment and results in their efforts, and the BDC is excited to be asked to participate in their redevelopment planning and activities.

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A proposed site pan for the former TS&T Pottery site at Chester shows the possible re-use of the site.

Interest in the site has been expressed and the BDC continues to work on grants to finish environmental cleanup of the site.

Contributed

The Three Springs Business Park has seen growth during the past several years including the expansion of the Rue 21 distribution center. Plans in the works include a plant for pipeline equipment maker Pietro Fiorentini and a new Barney’s Bakery.

‘Time and again, the BDC board of directors has shown the stamina, technical capacity and guts, to go after the money and hold to our mission. So long as we continue to illustrate all of that, we will continue to have a good success rate” in obtaining brownfield redevelopment, philanthropic and economic development grants.

– Pat Ford, executive director of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle

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Linking past to the future:

By WARREN SCOTT Staff writer WELLSBURG — City officials have teamed with regional and state agencies to clean up former industrial sites so they may be used for new development.

One of the fastest moving efforts in the region has been focused on the former Brooke Glass site at Sixth and Yankee streets near state Route 2.

Built in 1879, the building was home first to Riverside Glass Works before it was sold in 1908 to Henry Rithner Sr. and Ellery Worthen, who established the Crescent Glass Co. Years later it became Brooke Glass, with Henry Rithner III its last president.

One of many glass factories that once operated in the city, it was the last to close its doors in 2005. Between 2001 and 2005 its operations were limited to etching and painting glass produced elsewhere.

In 2011, the Brooke-Hancock Regional Development Council, an arm of the Brooke-HancockJefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission, worked with the Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center to secure a $5,000 grant from the Claude W. Benedum Foundation for an initial assessment of the site.

The assessment included 2 acres, both property occupied by the building and a lot across from it on the other side of Yankee Street. It involved a preliminary physical study of a site and research into written record of its past use.

In March, the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle acquired the property using a portion of a $370,000 grant awarded by the Benedum Foundation to the BDC and the Pittsburgh-based Riverside Center for Innovation for the development of 14 brownfield sites in Brooke and Hancock counties and Western Pennsylvania.

The BDC spent about $27,000 of its funds for an inspection by the state Department of Environmental Protection required of the sale and the removal and disposal of hazardous materials in jars and bags.

It also installed a fence around the property, while the Rithner family, its previous owners, installed a security system to prevent further vandalism to the building.

The BDC and brownfields assistance center then secured a $70,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a Phase 1 assessment to determine cleanup efforts needed for a site.

In December the two applied for a $200,000 EPA grant for cleanup efforts, including removing asbestos in the walls and windows and remediation of the land, where high levels of benzopyrene and arsenic were found in the surface soil.

The two chemicals were used in the production, with arsenic involved in producing red glass.

The BDC also hopes to use the grant to raze the building.

BDC Executive Director Pat Ford said the site’s proximity to state Route 2 and visibility from the highway are strong selling points. A drawback is that it’s in the floodplain, but he said the lot could be elevated, as was done with the former Wheeling Corrugating plant in Beech Bottom.

Ford said through its access to funds and resources not available to private owners, the organization can improve the potential for vacant industrial properties to be used again.

“It’s important to redevelop these brownfield sites because we want to attract investment, create jobs and expand the tax base,” Ford said.

He said representatives of companies involved

Brooke Glass, other Wellsburg sites eyed for new development in oil and gas, transportation logistics, warehousing and light manufacturing already have expressed interest in the site.

Working with city officials, the BDC and brownfields center held public meetings through which community members could tour the building and offer ideas for the property’s use.

A restaurant, community center and glass museum were among ideas suggested by community members.

and others associated with the factory that could be viewed at a kiosk at the museum, incorporating shards of colored glass found at the factory into a mosaic and placing a historical marker at the site.

Patrick Kirby, director of the brownfields assistance center, suggested an event inspired by the television show, “American Pickers,” in which former employees and others would be invited to bring an item from the business and share a story about it.

Other sites targeted

Preserving history The BDC and brownfields center also have recruited a professor and students at West Virginia University to help them and the city in preserving the factory’s history.

In October WVU history professor Jenny Boulware and students in her cultural resource management class toured the building and the Brooke County Museum and Cultural Center, where Crescent Glass and Brooke Glass items are displayed in the glass room.

Ideas suggested by the students included videotaping interviews with former employees

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Brooke Glass isn’t the only vacant property city and other officials are working to revitalize.

With the help of the Brooke-Hancock Regional Development Council, the city secured $400,000 from the EPA for an environmental assessment of the former GenPak building on Charles Street near 18th Street and has applied for a $200,000 EPA grant for its rehabilitation.

Built between 1904 and 1907, the two-story building was home to the Hudson Pulp and Paper Co. for many years.

See WELLSBURG Page 6A ➪

Contributed

Melissa Bingman, left, West Virginia University director of public history; WVU history professor Jenny Boulware, second from left, and students in Boulware’s cultural resource management class toured the former Brooke Glass factory in October with the help of Marvin Six, back, assistant director of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle. The students have been recruited to explore ways to preserve the history of the building, with roots that can be traced back more than a hundred years ago. It was the last of many glass factories that once operated in Wellsburg.

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Wellsburg Continued from Page 5A

Warren Scott

State, regional and city officials have been working together to accomplish an environmental cleanup at the former site of the Brooke Glass factory in an effort to attract new businesses to the site. It’s part of an ongoing effort to redevelop vacant commercial and residential properties..

It was purchased in the 1960s by Mammoth Plastics and later acquired by GenPak, also a manufacturer of molded plastic products, before the factory’s doors were closed in the 1990s.

Ford noted the regional development council also secured an $85,000 EPA grant for the environmental rehabilitation of the former Banner Fiberboard site, which became home in 2013 to a 40,000-squarefoot warehouse and distribution center for Eagle Manufacturing.

He noted Eagle has announced plans for a further 50,000-squarefoot expansion at the 4acre site.

Ford said such development has encouraged support for other projects.

City Manager Mark Henne agreed, saying, “That’s a huge site, and it made a big difference. That’s where it all started.”

Henne said since the expansion, the city’s urban redevelopment authority was formed to identify other areas that may be redeveloped.

He said aiding in that effort are WVU law professor Jared Anderson and graduate law students with the university’s Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic.

Through federal funding, the clinic has completed a comprehensive development plan for Wellsburg at no cost to the city.

Among many things, the plan suggests converting a vacant building for use as a business incubator, where new businesses may locate temporarily and draw upon various entities for expertise.

Diversity sought Mayor Sue Simonetti said she and others see opportunities for both commercial and residential development.

She suggested vacant buildings or lots could become home to firstrate condominiums or a strip mall with specialty shops.

“I’d like to see some diversity in the development,” Simonetti said.

Ford noted the BDC entered new territory last year when it purchased a deteriorating Beech Bottom site to repair and sell it through a program sup-

TOM BROWN

ported by Wells Fargo International. He said Simonetti has suggested the same could be done in Wellsburg.

Ford said such endeavors, while experimental, are in keeping with the BDC’s goal of drawing new businesses to the region because employees of those businesses will seek attractive places to live.

The BDC has produced videos for YouTube promoting not only the Brooke Glass site but also the quality of life in the city, noting its comparably low cost of living, low crime rate and access to a variety of restaurants in the city.

The videos are part of a series promoting both available properties and their communities that were funded by a $10,000 grant from the West Virginia Development Office.

Working together Henne said of the recent efforts for redevelopment, “In the last four years we’ve really been swinging at it and we’re really making good progress but of course, we still have more work to be done.”

He said the efforts have involved officials and community members working at various levels and their success will require such teamwork.

“We as a city can’t do it by ourselves. It takes all of these resources,” he said.

(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)

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Oil, gas industry: A game changer

By PAUL GIANNAMORE Staff writer

The impact of the gas and oil drilling is following the path that the area expected when the potential shale energy boom was first discussed late in the last decade.

Ed Looman, project manager for the Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth, who covers a ninecounty territory including Jefferson County, said the pattern of lease money coming first, followed by upstream and midstream companies, including drilling and servicing companies, has occurred as expected.

It’s evidenced, he said, in the rise in sales taxes, municipal income taxes and construction (including hotels and restaurants) throughout the region.

“Overall, it’s the opportunity that we thought it would be when it was first discussed,” Looman said.

APEG is about 2 years old and functions as a go-between from the local development organizations to state agencies.

Harrison and Carroll counties, he noted, have seen phenomenal growth, with growth also in Belmont County. Jefferson County hasn’t had a large number of wells sunk yet because initial findings were that the gas underground is less abundant in the wet gas that allows for valueadded work downstream by cracking the gas into materials useful in the polymers and chemicals industries.

“Jefferson County’s day is coming, just not as soon as we thought,” he said.

In addition, the infrastructure, including pipeline construction, still must be developed.

The industry is representing a game changer for the region, Looman noted, in that the discussion of development projects has gone from talking several years ago about multi-million dollar projects as successful to multi-billion dollar investments for the gas industry, including the plants being built in the Cadiz area by MarkWest.

Looman said the drop in the price of oil and gas is a concern for 2015, with the possibility of cutbacks on drilling for the year.

“But it’s way too soon for us to panic,” he said. “This particular play that’s going on, probably of all the plays that are going on in the coun-

‘Jefferson County’s day is coming, just not as soon as we thought.’

7A

try, is the most well insulated from pricing issues because of the kind of oil and gas that we have under our ground.”

Looman suggested that the key indicator will be the number of rigs that are in use in the area. If it goes down substantially, then a slowdown is occurring.

“I think we will see some impact during 2015, but duration is the big thing with this play, and I don’t think it’s going to have any major

impact on the future,” he said.

Looman said there are still 25 to 30 more years of exploration and development ahead, with the key development being the attraction of more downstream companies to the region.

Development of plastics and chemical plants should follow the construction of a cracker plant in the region, a facility that breaks down the wet resource taken out of the ground into components that can be further used in those industries.

Those kinds of downstream plants that will want to locate in the region where a cracker is built will be the drivers of long-term economic growth and vitality, Looman said.

Two crackers have been announced for the region, one in the Parkersburg area and one at Monaca, Pa., though no construction has begun.

APEG, he said, is working as part of a three-state effort to prepare the region for the kinds of development to come, including Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

That effort includes preparing sites, preparing infrastructure and getting the work force trained to meet the needs of the coming job market.

Looman said it will be two or more years before work begins on a cracker, which will take several years to build after that.

Once open, the plant will require as many as 500 highly skilled workers.

Development of the work force is taking place through Eastern Gateway Community College’s ShaleNet program of providing training and certificates for workers.

“It has developed the way it was reported that it was going to be developed, and now we are at the point

– Ed Looman, APEG project manager

where we are seeing the processing going on and we’re going to move further into the downstream opportunities.

That’s where we can talk about longterm impact.

That is really going to be the difference in this region,” he said.

That future need makes it critical to continue to identify prime development sites that are ready with the services needed to support new plants and factories. The sites need to Contributed be ready to The former Toronto Edison plant of First Energy Corp. was razed several years develop rapid- ago and the land has gone back in service as a new multi-million-dollar substation ly as the for a new electric transmission line. The $32 million substation is part of needs continFirstEnergy’s Energizing the Future initiative, which includes the construction of new 138- and 345-kilovolt lines and substations to fill a recommendation ue to arise from the PJM Interconnection, the organization that coordinates with growth the regional transmission of electricity. of the shale play.

Great Wall of China. People Ohio River. And developWhile Jefferson County cross it every day. It makes ment remains imprecise and continues to wait for its time impossible to predict. as a place for many wells, it’s sense for us to all work together” as a region, “A prospect calls you and in a good position to provide Looman said. “Workers will the needs are immediate. I services, Looman said. have to come from both sides need information on a site. I APEG has been working of the river.” It means the need information on the for about 18 months on an available work force, and I Ohio River strategy, identify- states will compete for projects, but once a site is choneed information about ing sites available with rail, sen, the region will have to available incentives,” he river and highway access to work together to cooperate said. “Then, the prospect serve transportation needs to support the new economic goes silent for six weeks. for not only the oil and gas opportunities.

Then you hear back, then itself but also the materials A major improvement has you hear nothing and nine needed to build new plants been the listing of more sites months later, maybe someand pipelines. from local economic develop- thing happens. It doesn’t Jefferson County, Looman ment organizations with Jobmean we’re not busy worksaid, has at least three ready sOhio, allowing site selectors ing the prospect. I thought sites where former steel we’d have 11 prospects mills stood for the last centu- to see what’s available in the region. close last year and they didry, including the old Site selection isn’t done as n’t. But five will close this Steubenville North plant and much through visits as quarter and six the second Yorkville mill of the former through on-line searches. quarter that will be wins for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.

“You never know who’s us.”

“That puts Jefferson looking at you,” Looman said.

Looman said there continCounty in pretty good shape “They see your ues to be a need to train compared with other Ohio property on workers for manufacturers River counties,” he said. this website.” here, too, as the work force The nearest ones beyond He said the in the region’s factories is Jefferson County include state is filteraging. Trained workers will the former Ormet site in ing out more find jobs as machinists, Monroe County and some projects to the welders and machine operasites in Belmont County. region for tors going forward, too, and “So, the bad news is developments training has to continue for there’s no more steel but that need to be on those jobs. the good news is that there or close to He said communications are new sites to develthe regarding work force develop,” he said. opment continues to “I don’t know if improve. we will call 2015 a breakout year but certainly it will be a year where we capitalize more on opportunities than we have in the past,” he said.

And that’s a regional view.

“The Ohio River is not the