Paulding County, Ohio

PAULDING COUNTY , OHIO spread out and enjoy life.” Paulding County has a population just under 19,000 and is located in the northwestern corner of Ohio and its western edge borders Indiana, with Fort Wayne, Indiana as the closest large city center. Highway access is very convenient on U.S. Route 24, which runs adjacent to the Village of Antwerp, and U.S. Route 127 which runs right through Paulding. These highways make the two largest villages in the county great places for businesses to access quick routes for shipping and receiving going into Indiana toward Missouri and to the rest of Ohio. Copsey says about 30 percent of residents commute outside of the county for work and about 40 percent of workers commute in. That’s something he and his colleagues are trying to change. He boasts, “It’s a good mix of jobs but we’ve started a trend here in our office to identify the open positions in the county, so that people are aware of those before they start looking outside the county. And it seems to be turning the tide to keep more people local.” Some of those initiatives to keep people employed in the county started with some quick thinking during the pandemic. Copsey explains, “The county used to host a job fair for students from the three local schools at the fairgrounds to let them get a sense of what was out there, in terms of colleges and companies to work for. What we’ve realized is that some of the businesses thought that wasn’t enough, just that piece alone, and now COVID-19 came in and