LOGAN — Joy Davis, CEcD, Executive Director of the Hocking County Community Improvement Corporation (CIC), was one of 12 Appalachian Ohio economic development professionals to receive a $10,000 grant from AEP Ohio for completing the Community Economic Development Academy (CEDA).
The multi-phase professional development program was created to build a better understanding of the site selection process companies use to locate new plants and operations. Davis attended a workshop, completed a gap analysis about local available sites and hosted a mock site visit by InSite Consulting, the site selectors who conducted CEDA.
“Seeing our community through the eyes of someone else provided a better understanding of what we need to do to be more attractive to businesses. We learned the City of Logan has abundant availability of water and waste-water services. However, we also identified a great need for buildings,” said Davis.
“AEP is proud to be part of creating more opportunities for economic development in rural Appalachian Ohio,” said Tim Wells, manager, economic and business development, AEP Ohio. The $10,000 grant will be used to help fill an economic development gap identified through the CEDA process.
Marty Walsh, vice president of programs, APEG, noted that one of the goals of APEG is to strengthen the skills of economic professionals in the region. “Our county partners know their area and the local businesses better than anyone, but many have not had a lot of experience working with site selectors and that’s where many of the deals start,” said Walsh.
CEDA was presented by the Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth and funded by the AEP Ohio.
The grants were presented at the ED 101 workshop held for local elected and community leaders last month.
From The Logan Daily | January 2, 2015
