At a ceremonial signing on January 23, Richland County officially became the 10th member county of the Joint Office of Economic Development (JOED) and NEOTEC. Pictured are: (seated, left to right) Richland County Commissioners Gary Utt, Ed Olson and Tim Wert, (standing, left to right) JOED Chairman and Portage County Commissioner Chuck Keiper, Mahoning County Commissioner John McNally, Wayne County Commissioner Cheryl Noah, and Stark County Commissioners Richard Regula and Gayle Jackson.

KENT, OHIO, January 17, 2006 – The Northeast Ohio Joint Office of Economic Development (JOED) has announced the addition of Richland County to its regional economic development partnership. In a ceremonial signing scheduled for January 23 at the Sheraton Suites in Cuyahoga Falls, the commissioners of the nine current member counties will officially welcome Richland County as a member of the JOED and the Northeast Ohio Trade & Economic Consortium (NEOTEC). NEOTEC is the private, nonprofit organization providing regional economic development services on behalf of the JOED.
“The addition of Richland County to the JOED reflects our continued commitment to the spirit of regional cooperation on which this organization is founded,” said Chuck Keiper, JOED Chairman and Portage County Commissioner. “The JOED already has a long and proud association with the City of Mansfield, Richland County’s largest city, which has administered a foreign-trade zone site at the Mansfield-Lahm Airport since 1999. Now we can extend that relationship to the entire county, as all 10 JOED counties unite in the common goal of promoting Northeast Ohio and enhancing our competitive advantages in the global marketplace,” Keiper said.
The JOED and NEOTEC were formed in 1996 by the executive of Summit County and the commissioners of Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark and Trumbull counties. Ashtabula became the seventh member county in January 2002, and Wayne and Medina counties joined the organization in January 2005.
“We are pleased to be a part of JOED and partner with NEOTEC on regional economic development efforts,” said Richland County Commissioner Tim Wert. “Richland County has made a major commitment in funding and facilities to retrain our workforce in higher technology skills. In order to grow our local businesses and attract new business to the area, we believe a better trained workforce will be pivotal in supporting that growth. Working through NEOTEC, we will have a vehicle to highlight Richland County’s business community and our better trained workforce on a global scale,” Wert said.

Under its contract with the JOED, NEOTEC works as a regional force for the 10 member counties, providing programs that support the efforts of the counties’ local economic development organizations. “The addition of Richland County enables NEOTEC to extend economic development support to a larger regional area and to pool the resources of 10 economically vibrant counties,” said Ron DeBarr, President and CEO of NEOTEC. “We look forward to extending our current association with the City of Mansfield to the entire county of Richland in order to assist in their economic development initiatives,” DeBarr said.
NEOTEC administers three organizations to implement its economic development strategies for the region: Foreign-Trade Zone 181 to promote international commerce, the International Trade Assistance Center (ITAC) to provide export counseling assistance to area businesses, and the Northeast Ohio Logistics Network to help improve regional market access.
For more information, contact Ron DeBarr, President and CEO of NEOTEC, at 330-672-4080 or via e-mail at neotec@kent.edu.
 

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The Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Consortium (NEOTEC) is a regional economic development partnership including Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and Wayne counties, built to improve market access through the development of the Northeast Ohio Logistics Network and to promote international commerce through the administration of Foreign Trade Zone 181.

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