Harrison County, Ohio

“The Watershed District is undergoing a $120 million capital improvement, upgrading all of its lakes and campgrounds,” Homrighausen reports. “Those were built mainly as a flood control project back in the Public Works days in response to the great 1913 flood. But as recreational sites for outdoor pursuits, they create an attraction point for Harrison County, and that had all been in place long before oil and gas put us on the global map.” The county is also working on numerous improvements not specifically related to oil and gas, including a 160-mile highway between Columbus and Pittsburgh that would provide a commerce corridor for freight transport. “The emerging metropolitan areas of Columbus and Pittsburgh are one of the few areas left in the U.S. not connected to each other by a four-lane highway,” Homrighausen explains. “Forty-seven miles of the roadway are still to be expanded, and we’d like to see that construction finalized.”