State of Region conference to examine economic development

Farmland preservation. Business closings—and how affected communities have adjusted to them. Capital investment and new construction.

All are part of the economic development equation, and all will be addressed in the context of northwest Ohio at a conference Friday (April 2) at Great Bear Lodge in Sandusky.

Presented by BGSU’s Center for Policy Analysis and Public Service, the third annual State of the Region conference will begin at 10:30 a.m.

Providing an overview will be the keynote speaker, Dr. Mark Drabenstott, vice president and director of the Center for the Study of Rural America within the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas. In his speech, beginning at 11:15 a.m., Drabenstott will address economic development in rural America and the concept of “thinking regionally, acting locally.”

After lunch, at 1:15 p.m., representatives of business and government in northwest Ohio will lead a panel discussion about the state of economic development in northwest Ohio from their professional perspectives.

Panelists will include:
Judith Cowan, the governor’s regional representative for the Ohio Department of Development in an eight-county area of west central Ohio;
Dale Fallat, vice president of corporate services for The Andersons, Inc., based in Maumee;
Michael Jay, economic development director for the city of Fremont, and
Larry Stelzer, director of the Mercer County Community Development Department.