Regional population change between 2011 and 2012 was a negative 6,151 persons.  Ashtabula County lost 697, Cuyahoga County lost 4872, Lake County lost 176, and Summit County lost 416.  Gainers were Geauga County with 362 added and Medina County with 282 added.  The numbers have to be a concern of regional officials.

U.S. Latino population swells 47 percent in 11-year study

A new national survey shows that the Latino population in the United States rose 47 percent from 2000-2011.

The Pew Research Hispanic Center in Washington, a demographic research institute, found that the Latino population in the United States during those 11 years swelled from 35.2 million to 51.9 million.

The total U.S. population as of 2011 was 311.6 million, meaning that 16.7 percent of people living in the country were Latino, compared with 12.5 percent in 2000.

And that percentage is expected to increase.  Of all births in the United States in 2011, 23.1 percent were to Latino women.  The center says its figures include undocumented people.  There are thought to be 11 million to 12 million undocumented people in the country, 80 percent of whom are Latino.

Two-thirds of all people of Mexican descent in the United States were born here.

Not only did the number of Latinos and their percentage of the U.S. population increase, but also the percentage of Latinos in the country who are U.S-born increased from 59.9 percent to 63.8 percent.  Latinos have the lowest median age of any population group, 27, compared with 33 for blacks, 36 for Asians and 42 for whites.

The survey shows that educational levels of Latinos rose over the 11 years studied.  The high school dropout rate among Latinos ages 16 to 19 plummeted from 17.5 percent in 2000 to 6.8 percent in 2011.  The percentage of Latinos 18 to 24 enrolled in college rose sharply, from 20 percent to 32.9 percent in the 11 years.

The median income of a Latino household in 2011 was $39,000.  That compared with $67,000 for Asian households, $54,400 for whites and $32,600 for blacks.

McClatchy News 2-21-13

Economic Good News

Ohio’ economic development program has won an award – the Governer’s Cup – from Site Selection magazine.

The cup is awarded annually to the state with the greatest success in attracting new major capital investment projects that create at least 50 jobs.

“A re-engineered approach to business development with a return-on-investment focus is already bearing fruit in Gov. John Kasich’s new administration,” the magazine said.  “Leadership in the new JobsOhio office is behind much of the Buckeye State’s success.”

Site Selection recorded 498 qualifying projects in Ohio in 2011, a jump of more than 30% form 2010′s 376 projects.  Ohio last year finished second to Texas, which this year is second to Ohio, with 464 projects.  Pennsylvania (453 projects), North Carolina (310) and Virginia (273) round out the top five.

Ohio’s total included 200 manufacturing expansions and 83 new manufacturing projects, with distribution centers, headquarters buildings and research and development centers comprising the rest.

Crains 11-18-12

Growing Manufacturing

It’s not a shortage of manufacturing jobs for workers in Northeast Ohio that concerns John Rampe.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Rampe says that the issue his company, Fairport Harbor-based Torque Transmission, and other regional manufacturers face is a shortage of laborers who not only want to work in manufacturing but who also have the technical skills and work ethic to do the job.

“There’s a culture in the nation that says that every kid should go to college.  There’s thinking on the part of parents and grandparents who worked in factories who say, “I did it and it was tough and I don’t want my kids to do it,” explains Rampe.

As the president of Torque Transmission, a designer and manufacturer of power transmission components, Rampe has a vested interest in not only building his own workforce, but also in doing his part to ensure that a steady stream of skilled laborers continues to flow through Northeast Ohio.  That’s why Rampe is working overtime to promote the Alliance for Working Together(AWT), a consortium of Northeast Ohio companies that want to change the misperception of American manufacturing, shape future generations of manufacturing professional and promote careers in manufacturing.

The gap between local manufacturing jobs and employees to fill them is very much today’s reality, says AWT president and CEO Pat Hoyt.  In a survey of AWT’s member companies the first 18 respondents alone had a combined total of 178 available positions, ranging from mechanics to machinists and secretaries to senior buyers.

“I also asked them what they were expecting in three to five years.  The total there was almost another 300 jobs,” Hoyt says.

The findings are consistent with broader national surveys.  According to a September survey from The Conference Board, a research organization that provides information on economic indicators, Ohio ranks third in the nation(behind California and Texas) with 14,202 openings in skilled factory jobs. The National Association of Manufacturers says that approximately 80 percent of manufacturers indicate that finding qualified workers is a problem.

Solving that problem is AWT’s mission.  Since its founding in 2002 by Roger Sustar, owner of the Mentor-based Fredon Corporation, the AWT has dedicated itself to cultivating and retaining a manufacturing workforce for Northeast Ohio companies.  The alliance has grown from 10 member companies to  a membership of 71 companies today.

One of the group’s recent initiatives began in September 2011, when the AWT and Lakeland Community College teamed up to offer an associate of applied science degree designed around the National Association of Manufacturers’ industry standards and skills certification system.  Last year, 22 students enrolled in the fall program.  The AWT has also set aside $50,000 in scholarships to provide tuition assistance to students enrolled in the program.

The AWT leadership is keenly aware that cultivating a manufacturing workforce goes beyond educational programs.  “We’ve said from the beginning that we need to set up a farm system, but first we have to get students interested in manufacturing careers,” says Hoyt.  That’s why last year, the AWT sponsored factory tours for 1,500 Northeast Ohio seventh and eighth graders.  All of the students were taken through career exploratory labs that gave them insight on careers in manufacturing, followed by a tour of an AWT member’s manufacturing facility.  “This year, our goal is to get back in front of all those students and reinforce the message,” Hoyt adds.

Rampe remains bullish on the AWT’s future, thanks to its programs and momentum. “I see the AWT becoming a very strong organization promoting manufacturing in Northeast Ohio,” he says.  “Manufacturing isn’t going to go away.  It’s still a very important part of our economy. The more we market ourselves and work to create a better, more educated workforce, the more people will turn to the region as a manufacturing area.  Here, we have the ability to make things and to make them economically.  That is our future.”

Neoeconomist 11-12

Christopher Galloway, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Concord Township
“Update on the Capital Parkway Extension Project AKA
Auburn-Crile Corridor Project”

WHEN: Friday, May 10, 2013, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

WHERE: Dino’s Restaurant, I-90 and Route 306, Willoughby. Map

COST: $15 members, $17 nonmembers

Contact Melissa at 440-336-4355 for reservations or at *protected email* or register online:

Some of Ohio’s 97 public general aviation airports may be running out of runway.

The state has embarked on an 18-month study to examine the economic impact and money needs of its publicly owned general aviation airports. The Ohio Department of Transportation says the review – dubbed the Ohio Airports Focus Study – is designed to see what roles these airports play in their communities and to identify the kinds of improvements that can be made with limited state and federal funds.

Because airports rely on public money for capital improvements, available funds could be focused only on the more robust airports, which could force some of the underused airfields to close.

State money for capital improvements at airports has declined in recent years, and it shows no signs of rebound. Local bodies are similarly strapped and unable to provide the local match for capital improvement grants.

General aviation airports serve all private aircraft, from single-engine propeller planes flown by weekend pilots and those used by flying schools to corporate jets.

Their revenues come for landing fees, rental of hangar space and from the sale of aviation fuel. The public agency operating the airport-usually a city or county commission-is on the hook to cover any operating losses, which is a common reality.

High-flying costs
Airports are expensive and not all the state’s general aviation airports operate anywhere close to capacity. An airport included in the study is the Willoughby Lost Nation Municipal Airport, which had 61,370 operations in 2006. It runs a deficit of more than $200,000 a year for the city of Willoughby, which has been negotiating for the Lake County Port Authority to take over the airport.

Because of their federal support, airports cannot simply close. Under the federal Airport Improvement Program, airports that accept federal grants for long-term capital projects, such as runway lengthening, must refund their federal grants if they are closed during the grant period, which can run for five years or longer.

Crains 1-27-13

. . .

Economy Shows Modest Growth

11 Economists are currently forecasting a GDP increase to 2.4 percent for 2013, stated the Investment Review prepared by Productive Capital Management, Inc.

The largest contributors to inflation have been food, up 2.8 percent; medical care up 3.9 percent; and apparel up 4.4 percent.

The good news is, Ohio’s jobless rate is at 7.3 percent, down from 8.8 percent a year ago. The news is even better in Lake County with a current 5.9 percent unemployment rate compared to 6.9 percent a year ago.

The Fed stated that the economy has expanded moderately and that the labor market has improved. Global financial market concerns have eased but still pose significant downside risk.

The Fed anticipates rates will be kept low through 2014 due to the economy.

Gazette 1-13-12

. . .

Lake County Population Change 1970-2010

. . .

Lake Erie is second-most threatened of Great Lakes

Lake Erie is one of the most threatened of the five Great Lakes as a result of toxic blue-green algae and invasive species of fish, mussels and plants, according to a new report.

The Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project concluded that Lake Erie was the second-most threatened of the lakes, behind Lake Ontario.

“It’s hard to imagine that any other Great Lake would be in more trouble”, said Sandy Bihn, director of the Toledo-based Lake Erie Waterkeeper advocacy group.

Researchers in 2011 tracked record-size “bloom” of the toxic algae in Lake Erie. Satellite photos that year showed the algae, which produces nerve toxin that can sicken humans and kill pets and other animals, stretching from Toledo to Cleveland. Rains wash manure, fertilizers and sewage into the lake, contaminating widespread areas with nitrogen and phosphorus that feed the algae.

Lake Erie appears to lead other lakes in sediment problems from erosion and in invasive shoreline reeds called phragmites and the invasive round goby fish, although zebra and quaggoa mussels are more concentrated in Lake Ontario, according to the map.

Researchers evaluated the cumulative threat to each Great Lake, emphasizing the categories of declining water level, rising water temperature, zebra and quaggoa mussels, sea lampreys and ballast-water dumping by oceangoing vessels, McIntyre said.

But no matter its ranking, Lake Erie’s combined problems present a dire threat to its overall ecology, according to Jeffrey Reutter, director of Ohio State University’s Sea Grant program and the Stone Laboratory of Lake Erie.

Lake Erie also apparently has been harmed by climate change, with maps showing a large loss of winter ice cover in Erie and Lake Superior.

Ice helps to slow warming of the water in the spring and summer, and Lake Erie’s ice levels are “dropping significantly over time, year after year”, Bihn said.

Associated Press 1-1-13

J. Fernandez, Goldman Sachs
“Reaching Out to Small Businesses”

WHEN: Friday, April 12, 2013, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

WHERE: Dino’s Restaurant, I-90 and Route 306, Willoughby. Map

COST: $15 members, $17 nonmembers

Contact Melissa at 440-336-4355 for reservations or at *protected email* or register online:

Thanks to Randy Horst for fifteen years of service to the council as a trustee and as past President. Randy was a very involved member and was always willing to help. He now works for PNC in Brecksville.

Ohio Launches new program for Workforce Development

This employer-driven program is designed to provide direct financial assistance to train workers and improve the economic competitiveness of Ohio’s employers. The voucher program is designed to offset a portion of the employer’s costs to upgrade the skills of its incumbent workforce and will provide reimbursement to eligible employers for specific training costs accrued during training. The program’s funding will be used in conjunction with private contribution to fund skill-upgrade training. Eligible employers must demonstrate that by receiving funding assistance through the Voucher Program that their business will not only obtain a skilled workforce but will improve their company processes and competitiveness.

To learn more about the Ohio Incumbent Workforce Training Voucher Program, including program guidelines and instructions, visit http://www.development.ohio.gov/bs/bs_wtvp.htm.

The caps on the program funding will be $500,000 per eligible company and /or $4,000 per eligible employee, with a reimbursement rate of up to 50%; all training must begin and be completed between Feb. 4 and June 30.

Tribune 1-16-13

Greater Cleveland Market

The Greater Cleveland industrial market ended the fourth quarter 2012 with a significant decrease in the overall vacancy rate, adjusting to 8.3% as compared to 9.6% at the end of the fourth quarter 2011. Overall net absorption for the fourth quarter was a positive 476,088 square feet. The average direct triple net asking rental rate in the fourth quarter increased slightly to $3.76 psf. Total sales activity for the fourth quarter 2012 was 2.2 million square feet. Seventy owner/user sales transferred in the fourth quarter totaling 1.8 msf with a total consideration of $34.9 million ($20.65 psf). Increased investment activity over the past 24 months as well as positive economic factors including lower unemployment rates and higher consumer confidence, brought cap rates lower in 2012 to 7.8%, 20 basis points lower than 2011.

Cleveland and northeast Ohio employers will continue to compete for higher skilled workers and will have to recruit outside the region. Healthcare, scientific and technical fields, construction and finance industry sectors that will be in demand. Major developments will open and it is expected that northeast Ohio will continue its renewed vitality in 2013.

Cushman & Wakefield/Cresco Early 2013

Immigrants make a big impact on the U.S economy

41% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.

48% of America’s top 50 venture-backed companies, as ranked by Dow Jones VentureSource, have at least one immigrant founder.

20% of Inc. 500 CEOs were born outside the U.S.

Among the 10 U.S. universities that produce the most patents, foreign-born inventors are responsible for 84% of IT patents.

Inc., 10-12

How to Grow the Economy

Get Productivity going: The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that individual firms could deliver three-quarters of the productivity-growth acceleration we need to return.

Unleash shale gas and oil: The boom in unconventional oil and gas has already created 1.7 million jobs and $62 billion in new federal and state tax revenue last year alone.

Foreign money: Make the current black-and-white rules on foreign investment more nuanced. Encourage foreign investment.

Time 1-21-13

The Importance of Infrastructure

Northeast Ohio has the opportunity to become a national leader in economic growth, according to U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette, but not until the region is able to expand its current infrastructure.

There’s no doubt infrastructure has been a significant contributor to the region’s past economic prosperity and will be a vital component to its future economic potential.

The best way to fulfill that potential, according to Steve LaTourette, is to address matters such as the impediments to Cleveland’s maritime trade on Lake Erie. “There are federal barriers and regulations that impede Cleveland companies from using our waterways for trade”, he said. “Why these companies cannot utilize the water to a greater extent is troubling.”

LaTourette in part blames Congressional gridlock for the lack of infrastructure legislation to meet the needs of the region, specifically politicians’ unwillingness to raise the federal gasoline tax, which funds national transportation projects such as roads, railways and harbors. The tax has been fixed at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1994, and it needs to be raised, he said.

What attracts investment is high-quality infrastructure. We need to create a memorable experience for both the people who already live here and also for those who are visiting. That’s where Cleveland has some catching up to do.

We have a legacy of infrastructure in this region. The challenge is maintaining older infrastructure into infrastructure that competes in the 21st century.

Neoeconomist 11-12, City Club panel

Ivan Swartz, Cleveland Film Commission
Topic TBA

WHEN: Friday, March 8, 2013, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

WHERE: Dino’s Restaurant, I-90 and Route 306, Willoughby. Map

COST: $15 members, $17 nonmembers

Contact Melissa at 440-336-4355 for reservations or at *protected email* or register online:

Speakers
U.S. Rep. David Joyce
Senator John Eklund
Senator Nina Turner
Representative Ron Young
Representative John Rogers
Lake County Commissioner

Moderator Michael Victor, President, Lake Erie College

WHEN: Monday, February 25, 2013
7:30 – 9:30 a.m.

WHERE: Holiday Inn Express hotel & Suites LaMalfa
5783 Heisley Road, Mentor, Ohio

COST: $20 per person
Includes healthy breakfast

RSVP: 440-336-4355, Melissa
Or email *protected email*
Or register online, below.

Make checks payable to:
Lake County Development Council or LCDC
P.O. Box 955, Painesville, OH 44077

This event sponsored by:
Chase Bank, FirstMerit Bank, LakeHealth, MEACO, Maloney + Novotny

The November election split Lake County office right down the middle. Nine office holders are Democrats: Commissioners Moran, Aufuldish and Troy, Recorder Radcliffe, Clerk of Courts Kelly, Treasurer Fende, and Judges Falkowski, Klammer and Gibson. Nine office holders are Republicans: Judges Lucci, Collins, Culotta, and Lawson; Sheriff Dunlap, Prosecuting Attorney Colson, Auditor Zupancic, Engineer Gills and Coroner Smith. Lake County is a microcosm of the county, split down the middle.

Gilsons establish nursery easement in North Perry Village

Mark and Kristine Gilson have become the fifth family in North Perry Village to protect their farmland with an agricultural conservation easement in the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP). The Klco, Gerlica, and Kroggel families entered the program in 2005 and the Browns in 2008, bringing the total of preserved locally important farmland in North Perry Village to 139 acres. As the owners of Gilson Gardens, Inc., a third generation nursery and garden center in Lake County, the Gilsons have become the fist nursery business in the country to create an easement specific to the protection of nursery stock production land.

The FRPP is a voluntary federal conservation program that provides matching funds to purchase conservation easements on farm and ranch land in the United States. The FRPP was created in 1996 for the long-term conservation of agricultural lands in our country. It pays 50% of the cost of the easement for successful applicants and relies on the local government to provide a match of 25-50%. The grantors of the easement donate any remaining value. FRPP protects productive farmland from development pressures, and requires that the land remain in agriculture. North Perry Village provided the match for all five easements and establishing an agricultural easement district within the Village. The preservation of productive nursery land and farmland is important to the future of Lake County and is a major component of our economic foundation and cultural heritage.

Cross section 3rd Q 2012

State announces new farmland preservative program

Ohio Department of Agriculture Director David T. Daniels announced a new way to preserve Ohio farmland.

The Agricultural Easement Donation Partnership Program will reimburse local partners (counties, townships, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, or land trusts) for real estate closing and administrative costs to assist land-owners with donations under the state’s farmland preservation program.

The department has set aside $50,000 to cover up to $3,000 in costs for the donation of farms up to 200 acres.

The incentive would increase by $5 per acre for easements more than 200 acres in size. Funds will be equally available in all areas of the state.

“Ohio has gone from zero preserved farmland acres to more than 54,000 preserved acres in just over 10 years. This would never have been possible without the help of our local partners,” said Daniels. “Today, through this program, we are offering a way to help our partners preserve even more productive farmland at the local level. We hope to preserve many more acres of donated agricultural easements through these incentives.”

The new program will help provide local partners with resources to respond to landowners who want to permanently protect their land for agricultural production. Tax benefits for the value of the easement donation may be available.

Tribune 8-29-12

State & local government employment declined by 716,000 jobs between June 2008 and June 2012. The drop was from about 19,800,000 to 19,084,0000. Large numbers, but the drop was significant, due undoubtedly to less income to governments. - Planning Magazine 11-12

2011 household income not high in regional states: Indiana $46,438; Kentucky $41,141; Michigan $45,981; Ohio $45,749; New York $55,246;Pennsylvania $50,228. High: Maryland $70,004; low: Mississippi $36,919. - Census Bureau

Countrywide and Bank of America made disastrously bad loans and stuck taxpayers with the bill

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Bank of America accusing it of fraud for causing taxpayers more than $1 billion in losses from selling bad mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Consumer Reports 1-12

Why the mania for college degrees?

For many years the conventional wisdom in the United States has been that the more people who graduated from college, the better off we’ll be. It’s time to challenge the “wisdom.” The evidence says it’s wrong.

The notion that the economy can be pulled up by processing more young people through college has lots of allure. Two University of North Carolina professors, for example, recently proposed that North Carolina set as an “aspirational” goal having 32 percent of the state’s working-age population have a bachelor’s degree or higher by 2018, up from 28 percent today.

There are two problems with such goals.

First, politicians and bureaucrats shouldn’t setting goals for citizens. It should work the other way around.

That brings me to the second problem: America already has gone far past the point of diminishing returns on higher education.

Trying to lure more young people into college just so we can say we have more college graduates will lead to more 20-something Americans with college degrees who are holding down jobs that don’t require degrees or don’t pay enough to cover the cost of college.

Now, as a result of two events many Americans are starting to realize that college has been oversold.

The first event was the Occupy Wall Street protests. A large percentage of the occupiers were unemployed college graduates who had a lot of grievances, foremost among them the fact that they couldn’t pay their college loans. That was a direct hit on the belief that college graduates have the inside track on good, high-paying jobs. In fact, hundreds of thousands of college graduates today- in addition to those who are unemployed-are working part-time, or holding jobs they could have done while still in high school, such as serving coffee, waiting on tables, working a cash register. The simple fact that we produce more students with bachelor’s degrees doesn’t automatically create more jobs requiring bachelor’s degrees.

The second 2011 event was the publication, by the University of Chicago Press, of a remarkable new book, “Academically Adrift,” in which the authors, two highly respected sociologists, showed that a high percentage of college students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” during their student years. As veteran higher education writer Scott Jaschik commented in Inside Higher Ed, “If the purpose of a college education is for students to learn, [the book showed that] academe is failing.”

Pushing more people through college hasn’t raised our national skills level or made us more productive. Instead, it has helped create a bloated, inefficient higher education sector; it has strapped millions of students with high levels of debt; and it has caused a bad case of credential inflation-with employers demanding college degrees for work that only calls for basic skills and trainability.

It is time for our leaders to recognize that higher education, like almost everything else, is subject to diminishing returns. More isn’t always better.

George Leef, Pope Center, Ed Policy 12-12

Mayor Ed Klco, North Perry
Topic: The Lake Effect – Updates on North Perry and the Latest on Shoreline Redevelopment

WHEN: Friday, January 11, 2012, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

WHERE: Dino’s Restaurant, I-90 and Route 306, Willoughby. Map

COST: $15 members, $17 nonmembers

Contact Melissa at 440-336-4355 for reservations or at *protected email* or register online:

Kevin Moore, Managing Director, Cleveland Play House
Topic: The Cleveland Play House and the local economy

WHEN: Friday, December 14, 2012 at noon

WHERE: Dino’s Restaurant, I-90 and Route 306, Willoughby. Map

COST: $15 members, $17 nonmembers

 Thanks to all who participated!