Local displaced workers, city and county officials and concerned citizens will soon be able to talk with state representatives about their future in the wake of recent announcements of more job losses – and hear what the state is going to do to help.

Monday, January 10, 2000

Local displaced workers, city and county officials and concerned citizens will soon be able to talk with state representatives about their future in the wake of recent announcements of more job losses – and hear what the state is going to do to help.

At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Ohio University Southern Campus, an open forum is scheduled for idea sharing and information gathering concerning problems caused by the recent announcement of the closure of the Intermet-Ironton Iron plant in the city.

Among the officials scheduled to attend are representatives from the Greater Lawrence County Area Chamber of Commerce, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Ohio Department of Development.

This meeting comes after Ironton Mayor Bob Cleary’s Thursday meeting in Columbus with chamber of commerce executive director Pat Clonch and Michael Jackson, an industrial recruitment specialist in the state’s Department of Development.

Cleary traveled to Columbus armed with a list of actions the state must take to assist the city, which, by February, with Intermet’s impending closure, will have lost more than 1,000 jobs in less than a year’s time.

"When you have a city this size and job losses of this magnitude, it affects the quality of life and economy for everyone, not just those people who lose their jobs," Cleary said. "What we have determined from the meeting is that we have to stress the importance of marketing the entire community."

Before deals are proposed and companies can be effectively swayed to locate their businesses in the area, Cleary said marketing the community is a logical, necessary step.

"It involves more than marketing what the community has to offer on an industrial side," he said. "Any time a business shows an interest, we need to concentrate on the good things that already are here, such as the benefits of the skilled, trained workforce, our police and fire protection – every asset that we have as a community. We need to market more than buildings. We need to market Ironton."

The Tuesday meeting also will be a determining factor in whether or not a group of citizens and officials will continue with plans for a rally in Columbus.

The rally, originally intended to gain the attention of state representatives to recent job losses in the city, would only be a way to gain negative attention or would have no impact at all, said Joy Padgett of the Governor’s Office of Appalachia at a recent meeting with city officials.

Ms. Padgett visited the city last week for more than five hours of meetings with Cleary and workers who lost their jobs when Cabletron closed.

Those workers and city officials are asking for an appearance by, and support from, Gov. Bob Taft, as well as all forms of assistance from the state and federal levels for a city they maintain is reaching an emergency status.

Cleary said he hopes the meeting will give the community a chance to show they are unified and that, through working together with the officials and representatives, the meeting will end with more answers than questions.