Ashland County, Ohio

tion businesses. It doesn’t abate property taxes already being paid, but it can be applied to ad- ditional improvements that have been done. Grow Ashland also helped Ashland County set up a land bank, which focuses on repurposing de- linquent, abandoned properties.What does this have to do with economic development? Goon explains, “Companies relocating here are bring- ing executives who will want to live in a nice community. You want to make sure your residen- tial area looks good and your corridors coming into your city look good. Ashland Land Bank will help clean up the blight in neighborhoods and bring them back to where people are invested in their homes.” Ashland also has many entrepreneurial busi- nesses moving to the area. Grow Ashland works with everybody– from a very small business right up to a company with 1,000 employees. Goon explains, “Companies come in wanting a 100,000-sq.-ft. building with 40-ft. ceilings, right on I-71, with internet access, and utilities run- ning to it. And I tell them they’re looking for the ‘purple squirrel’– in other words, something that doesn’t exist. Instead, we find what’s available that’s going to work the best and figure out how we can tweak it.We go by their bottom line and build from there.” In 2017, two major natural gas pipelines were constructed right through the County from east to west. The smaller (12 to 24 inch) line, north of the City of Ashland, carries gas used in the manu- facturing of plastics. A 42-inch pipeline through the southern County, transports gas for heating homes and businesses. The construction project spurred millions of dollars of economic activity. With the influx of new workers, money was spent on hotels, services, goods, restaurants, and much more. Marketing is another facet of Grow Ashland that has been very effective. Goon hired Scott Wil- liams, owner of Vinyl Marketing, to produce a promotional video that clearly defines economic development and the role of GAED. As Goon notes, “Scott is extremely talented and has sur- rounded himself with an amazing team.We saw a video they did for the Uniontown Brewing Company, a new local business that started here in 2017, and it was every bit as good as a Bud- weiser commercial. That’s why we signed them on to promote Ashland.”Williams is taking it one step further by investing in the downtown. He bought a building in the core and is working with Grow Ashland on a tax incentive to help with renovation costs. In other exciting news, a film company is relocat- ing from Los Angeles to Ashland. Scott Donnelly, owner of Ashland’s Donnelly Ford, purchased and Minnich Manufacturing