Business View Magazine Jan-2019

196 County Commissioners have worked with us to fund the operation and our private sector funding is growing because of the commitment that the Commissioners made,” she states.“So,we were able to utilize available economic development funds for economic development activities.”Going forward, Lauerman notes that the LCEA is focused on busi- ness attraction and retention, as well as expansion of its existing core of companies.“Part of our goals that we’re moving toward is identifying develop- able land spaces and sites because we know that not everyone will fit into a 50,000-sq.-ft. building, nor will they fit on one or two acres.We have clients that we’re working with, now, that are looking at up to 280-300 acres and some more than that.” Manufacturing is still the county’s number one employer.“In 2017, 60 percent of our 320 site se- lection leads were in manufacturing,”Lauerman reports.“It continues to diversify from our traditional steel and refining operations into other types of manufacturing–containers and packaging, food products, solar and alternative energy components, extruded plastics, and a variety of other sectors. But our legacy institutions also continue to modern- ize and invest. Recently, BP completed a very large modernization project–approximately $5 billion of investment.We also had a very large announcement by US Steel about investment in their operation