Five to Thrive: Coshocton's keys to success

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

Through interviews with community leaders and general knowledge of the area, The Coshocton Tribune identified the five most important challenges facing the city. 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 with or bad about Coshocton. Rather, we want to identify how the community can meet its challenges to become a more prosperous place. Similar efforts are being done at The Tribune's sister publications across Ohio, which hopefully will present the opportunity for each of them to learn solutions from the others.

The list, however, is only a starting point. Feedback from readers is critical to ensure the project focuses on the 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 the community lack. That means hardworking people 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 20.3 percent of Coshocton County residents have an associate degree or higher.

In the county, 900 people are unemployed and actively seeking work, even though there are nearly 4,000 unfilled positions within a 30-mile drive. Many of them, about 1,200, require a degree.

Helping those people seeking work to become 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, Coshocton County physicians prescribed opiates at a rate of 64.9 doses per resident, up from 59 doses in 2010. In 2013, the Muskingum Area Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Board, which serves six counties including Coshocton, provided publicly funded drug treatment to 1,480 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.

Connecting Coshocton

Coshocton's lack of technological connectivity is repelling possible residents and businesses that could bring jobs to the area with an unemployment rate higher than the state average.

In terms of broadband accessibility, Connect Ohio calculates that only 85 percent of households in Coshocton have basic Internet connections, making it the fifth least connected county in the state and one of only 38 counties with less than 99 percent connectivity.

With vast spans of the county lacking in technological infrastructure, drawing businesses to the area can be difficult, according to the Port Authority, as companies are less likely to invest in an area that is cut off from the Internet.

Assistance is available through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's State Broadband Initiative grant program, but with only $7.3 million available for the entire state, yearly funding can be scarce.

Increasing the connectivity of Coshocton would open it to a whole new world of possible businesses and residents working to grow the county and its economy.

Developing the next leaders

As a county with an aging population, Coshocton needs to look to its youth for the next generation of leaders and legislators.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age of Coshocton's residents is 55, with only 6 percent of the 36,000-plus population younger than age 5. To ensure the city and county's future is one with strong leadership, the county's leaders must now develop a leadership base among its youth members and entice them to stay in the community after high school.

Part of keeping those future leaders in the area is increasing the depth and breadth of the job pool so that students who go off to receive a higher education will be able to come home and get a job in their field.

Young men and women who return to their hometown and are able to develop pride in their area will then have the ability to blossom into the leaders of tomorrow.

Planning for Coshocton 2050

What will Coshocton be 35 years from now? Will it find its niche in tourist attractions such as Roscoe Village and the Three Rivers Wine Trail? Will it continue to draw in large manufacturers such as Kraft? Or will the population continue to decline, as it has bit by bit for the last decade, turning the area into a ghost town?

Preventing the latter requires a feasible plan from its leadership and its residents as they decide how an area that has faced numerous layoffs and company turnover in the past several years will find its place in the future.

Gannett Ohio reporters Jessie Balmert and Jona Ison contributed to this report.