Zanesville's keys to success in the 21st century

ZANESVILLE -- Zanesville 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, forums and general knowledge of the area, The Times Recorder 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 Zanesville. 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 Times Recorder'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 many people in this 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 22.3 percent of Muskingum County residents have an associate degree or higher.

In the county, 2,200 people are unemployed and actively seeking work, even though there are more than 4,000 unfilled positions within a 30-mile drive. Many of them, about 1,200, 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, Muskingum County physicians prescribed opiates at a rate of 90.3 doses per resident, well above the state average of 64.9. In 2013, Muskingum Area Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Board, which serves six counties, 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.

Developing the next generation of leaders

As a county with an aging population, Muskingum County 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 the county's residents is 51 years old, with only 6.1 percent of the 85,000-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 the youth and deter them from leaving the community after high school.

With Ohio University Zanesville, Zane State College, Muskingum University and Mid-East Career and Technology Center all seated at the heart of the county, young people don't have to leave to get educated, but they often do need to leave to find a job in their field, leading to what officials have dubbed "brain drain."

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.

Making connections

With 16 service organizations operating locally under the United Way's umbrella and countless others working independently, there's not a lack of locals willing to help those in need.

What there is, Zanesville City School's Steve Foreman said, is a failure to communicate among the groups, leading to overlap in services and a stockpiling of resources that could be used countywide.

Making more connections, he added, would be the best way to expand the reach of the programs and make efficient use of the limited resources each organization has.

Promoting a positive self-image

Zanesville, once the capital city of Ohio and renowned for its Y Bridge, is facing a self-esteem crisis.

Despite the positive aspects of the community — the Artist Colony, the Wilds, Dillon State Park — its residents continue to lump on criticisms, making it hard to move forward.

Recognizing the good in Zanesville also can mean confronting the bad, such as the blight and abandoned houses that litter downtown. Making the community more visually appealing and promoting the positive aspects of the community could lead to an improved self-image for the area and turn an area with a diminished population into one looking for new life.

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