Tribune editorial staff

Did someone say the business climate in Ironton was bad? If so, take a cruise around town just to see how wrong they are.

The latest business relocating to Ironton is Fee Corp Industrial Services, an industrial cleaning company. With more than 60 employees now showing up for work in the city limits of Ironton, the impact of the business should be tangible soon.

What's best about the move may be that Fee Corp purchased a previously vacant building. With some elbow grease and a little paint, Fee Corp employees will have the former Matlack building on the corner of Wyanoke and 12th streets looking new again.

Ironton is a city ripe with opportunity. Lots of good-sized buildings are available for lease or purchase.

And it's not just new businesses that are making a difference in the local economy. A number of businesses have done renovation work in the last few days and months. Perhaps among the most visible change in recent years was the transformation of the former Burger King building into the new Ironton Physical Therapy building on Third Street.

More recently, McDonald's restaurant, Peddler's Home Cooking restaurant and Unger's Shoes, just to name a few, have all worked on their buildings.

Too often, we drive past the scaffolding and ignore the workers doing their business.

What we sometimes overlook is the importance of that work. Each dollar spent in the community is easily rolled over several times.

In addition, each dollar spent on a business is really an investment in the future of the entire economy.

The future of the economy in this area isn't dependent upon our economic leaders hooking a big fish, in the form of a major industrial venture. The key is really on the success of the small businesses in the area. And if recent renovations are any indication, the future looks bright on the horizon.