RESTORING PORT CLINTON

Five to Thrive: Port Clinton's keys to success

Kristina Smith
mksmith@gannett.com

Port Clinton is beloved by many in the community, but there are critical issues that must be faced to ensure it can be successful into the future.

Through interviews with community leaders, forums and general knowledge of the area, the News Herald identified the five most important challenges facing Port Clinton and Ottawa County. The five topics are outlined below and will be individually explained in greater detail throughout 2015.

The point of the project is not to expose what is wrong or bad with Port Clinton and Ottawa County, but to identify how the community can meet its challenges to become a more prosperous place.

Similar efforts are being done at the News Herald's nine sister publications, which we hope will present the opportunity for each of them to learn solutions from the other.

The list, however, is only a starting point. Feedback from readers is critical to ensure the project focuses on those issues most important to the community. And engagement with the community to discuss the issues is the only way they will improve.

Below are the five topics selected for focus in 2015. They are not listed in order of importance.

•Closing the skills gap

Well-paying jobs require technical skills that people in this community lack. That means hard-working individuals are forced to take positions that won't feed a family and local businesses are left struggling to find qualified candidates.

Across Ohio, the state is projected to gain 1.7 million jobs by 2018 through new positions and retirements. Of those jobs, 57 percent will require postsecondary training but just 29.8 percent of Ottawa County residents have an associate's degree or higher.

In Ottawa County, 1,800 people are unemployed and actively seeking work even though there are more than 7,700 unfilled positions within a 30-mile drive. About 2,800 require a degree.

Helping those people seeking work to be qualified for available jobs is critical to the economic vitality of the area.

•Creating drug-free workplaces

Employers are having a difficult time finding and retaining employees who pass drug tests. Nationally, there was a 5.7 percent increase in positive workplace drug tests in 2013, the first increase Quicken Diagnostics had reported since 2003.

That same year, Ottawa County physicians prescribed opiates at a rate of 67.7 doses per resident, up from 63.6 doses in 2010. In 2013, Erie-Ottawa ADAMH provided publicly funded drug treatment to 1,518 people.

Most drug abusers work – 70 percent, according to the National council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence – and, nationally, cost employers $81 billion each year for a variety of issues from increased medical costs to decreased productivity.

Helping employees get clean not only will benefit their lives, but also help local businesses be more productive and hopefully grow.

•Making the community primed for success

Port Clinton is getting ready to make major infrastructure improvements downtown in the next few years, thanks in part to a $2.34 million grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation.

New water and sewer lines will be added to Second Street, and electrical lines will be put underground. Then, the city plans to use the ODOT grant to replace water and sewer lines under Madison Street and make the street — the city's main downtown thoroughfare — more pedestrian friendly.

Outside the city, Ottawa County has kept up with infrastructure improvements to local business parks, said Ottawa County Improvement Corp. Director Jamie Beier Grant and Ottawa County Commissioner Steve Arndt.

In recent years, the county extended water and sewer lines to Camp Perry and the neighboring Lake Erie Business Park in Erie Township and added high-speed Internet and more bandwith to the Lake Winds Industrial Park in Salem Township, Grant said.

•Address an aging population

With an aging population, Port Clinton and Ottawa County must look to younger generations to fill leadership roles.

Port Clinton, Catawba Island and Marblehead are popular vacation communities and areas where people choose to retire. The county's population of people age 65 and older was 21.2 percent in 2013, the latest year for which numbers were available.

In the next five to 10 years, the United States is expected to have a 30 percent attrition rate in business because of people retiring, Grant said.

The county has formed an Ottawa County Business Advisory Council to connect local educators with business officials. The goal is to help educators understand what skills students will need to fill jobs at those businesses and give the businesses — including industry, health care and tourism — a pipeline for potential workers, Grant said.

•Capitalizing on the lake

From the Marblehead Lighthouse to its many beaches to the Lake Erie Islands, one of the biggest things Ottawa County has to offer is its picturesque location on Lake Erie.

Thousands of people visit each year seeking to relax and unwind at area resorts and natural areas, visit Cedar Point amusement park in nearby Sandusky and to reel in walleye, perch and more from the area's world-class fishery.

Local officials hope to continue capitalizing on Ottawa County's quality of life to attract business and industry and bring more people to the area.

The area also is centrally located between Columbus, Cleveland and Detroit, so it offers a opportunities to enjoy larger cities while living in a small town, Grant said.

Gannet Ohio's Jessie Balmert and Jona Ison contributed to this report.