Strengthening Stark enhancements aimed to attract business - Canton Repository

The idea is to make Stark County attractive to high-wage businesses by having infrastructure in place to support their needs.

So far, the effort to make Stark County more economically competitive has focused heavily on people and programs — things like workforce development and business retention and expansion.

But eventually, there's also going to be an entire infrastructure component.

"This is an area that we need to do a lot more work on," said Hrishue Mahalaha, one of the consultants overseeing the implementation of Strengthening Stark. "Even though this is one of our seven important pillars, from a progress perspective, we have a lot more work to do on this front. We don't have as many answers as we would like at this point."

In 2017, a group of civic leaders teamed up to release a data-driven report that showed Stark County is becoming less-populated, is struggling to attract younger residents, and is working with fewer tax dollars because incomes here lag behind other neighboring communities.

This past summer, the details about how all that can be improved were released. Two economic development experts were hired (using private funds) to put the plan into action. There are seven parts, one of which is infrastructure.

See the whole plan below:

Why does infrastructure matter?

The idea is to make Stark County attractive to high-wage businesses by having infrastructure in place to support their needs. The goal is to attract private, state or federal dollars to get sites prepared.

What are the Strengthening Stark infrastructure projects?

• BROADBAND

Big goal: Expand broadband coverage to more homes

Why do it? To make sure Stark County residents have affordable access to broadband so they also have access jobs and opportunity.

Who's in charge? Existing service providers and the Stark County Area Broadband Task Team

The plan:

- Develop a team of leaders

- Figure out what the community wants in terms of broadband

- Figure out what service providers are planning to do

- Create a plan to address any gaps in service

Who already has broadband? Most people in Stark County have access to at least one service provider offering broadband, according to a Federal Communications Commission map.

What's already happened? There's a lot of work related to broadband already underway in the county, and it's led by two groups. Private service providers have been upgrading and expanding their networks to bring broadband to more homes. And the broadband task force — organized with a goal of making high-speed internet a fourth utility — has for years been studying what it would take to make affordable broadband services easily accessible.

The Strengthening Stark effort is relying on the private sector and the task force to drive future broadband development. Consultants already have spoken with MCTV, AT&T and Spectrum about their plans and what they need from the county. Last week, the consultants talked with members of the broadband task team about reviving some of their efforts and further exploring some of the work that was done in a 2016 feasibility study about broadband possibilities for Stark.

• SITE DEVELOPMENT

Big goal: Increase the number of properties sold or leased to businesses, and, by extension, the number of high-quality jobs in Stark County

Why do it? Stark County has dozens of available buildings and sites where new businesses could locate or existing businesses could expand

Who's in charge? Stark Economic Development Board

The plan:

- Create one database where information about every available commercial site is stored

- Prioritize available locations for investment

- Develop a marketing plan for the properties

What's already happened? The Stark Economic Development Board has started a database that catalogues available buildings and land and the amenities at each. Some of the largest available properties have their own information pages with details about how big the property is, who owns it, how it's zoned, and what infrastructure already is in place.

See the biggest available sites in Stark County: (Click on a property for more information.)

Mahalaha, with Strengthening Stark, said the Stark County Auditor's Office will help map properties and apply different filters to figure out what properties should be prioritized for investment. Then, the local communities where the properties are located will be approached to see whether there's any interest in investing in one of those properties.

Other infrastructure ideas

Broadband and site development will be the big focus areas for infrastructure, but there are two other ideas in the works:

• Community arts and vibrancy: Connect ArtsinStark initiatives to economic development to see more dollars invested in the community.

The basic idea is businesses want to invest in communities that are thriving and not "post-apocalyptic," Mahalaha said. If ArtsinStark projects are near retail or industrial sites, there's an opportunity to make an investment and lift up an entire neighborhood.

The Strengthening Stark team already has started marketing the area's arts and culture, as highlighted in this promotional video that's on YouTube. (Watch it below.)

• Transportation network: Reduce transportation barriers to connect employers with workers.

Some of that work might be done by creating maps that show where jobs are and where transportation networks are and then working to fill gaps.

Reach Alison at 330-580-8312 or alison.matas@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @amatasREP

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