For decades, Ohio cities like Mansfield have experienced economic turmoil, loss of industry and subsequent population decline. But, in recent years, the northeast Ohio city has reversed that trend.
More people are moving to Mansfield. With Intel poised to set up shop a mere hour away, the city is preparing for a wave of even more people. City leaders say they鈥檝e been getting ready for this moment long before Intel announced it would make its home in Ohio.
Abigail Bottar with member station Ideastream Public Media reported on . She sat down in an interview with the Ohio Newsroom to explain.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
On the city鈥檚 preparations
鈥淐ity and county officials are working to make Mansfield and Richland County as desirable as possible for businesses and developers, so that includes investing in Mansfield鈥檚 downtown and working on a comprehensive land use plan to decide where the city should have manufacturing businesses and where there can be more investments in housing. The Richland County Chamber and Economic Development has also been really involved, working to both attract new businesses and support existing businesses.鈥�
"With Intel, the very first thing we looked at is who do we have here that can serve some of their needs? So, our first emphasis is always our existing employers. How can we help them grow and be the best that we can be?鈥�Jessica Gribben, Richland Area Chamber Economic and Community Development Director
鈥淭his has been a long time coming for Mansfield. There was a real concerted effort around 2018 to get residents involved in reinvigorating the city and coming up with unique ways to not only attract businesses but also people and families. And now with all this buzz around Intel, leaders in the community really feel like they鈥檙e seeing the fruit of their labor.鈥�
On how the region is reacting
鈥淓very county I checked in with surrounding Licking County 鈥� where the Intel plant is being built 鈥� are being super proactive on how they can capitalize on this investment. For example, in Coshocton County, John Berry, the president of Central Ohio Technical College, told me they have been working with Intel since they announced the project on how the school can get students ready for Intel jobs.鈥�
鈥淲e were very closely aligned already. About 80% of their needs were met by our general engineering, particularly in electrical engineering.鈥�John Berry, president of Central Ohio Technical College
鈥淏erry says the school has been able to tweak that program and already has students about to graduate and are getting good jobs in similar industries to Intel. Other counties have done similar things to Mansfield, like investing in business parks to be ready for when businesses want to move in.鈥�
On the challenge of housing
鈥淸Housing] is something a lot of these communities have already been working on, because they鈥檝e been seeing population growth well before Intel鈥檚 announcement. In Mount Vernon in Knox County, for example, there are 1,500 units either currently being built or about to be built. And officials I spoke with also said they hope people in their counties will get some of these new manufacturing jobs or that people from other counties will commute in for them.鈥�
鈥淚 was kind of expecting there to be pushback [from residents already living in these cities], but from everyone I talked to, it seems like residents are really excited. And officials I spoke with have been trying to be very proactive about including residents on the changes that they're making. So it really feels like they're bringing residents and the existing businesses already there along with them for this big transition with Intel.鈥�
On lessons from Mansfield
鈥淭he biggest takeaway in Mansfield is the power of working across sectors as a team backing one shared goal. I spoke with Alison Goebel with the Greater Ohio Policy Center about this, because her organization works on revitalization in Ohio鈥檚 legacy cities, like Mansfield.
"The decline of places like Mansfield didn't happen overnight, so the kind of regeneration of them is not going to happen overnight. But there's demonstrable distance that it has covered."Alison Goebel, Greater Ohio Policy Center
[Goebel says] the work isn鈥檛 done in Mansfield and these other communities in Central Ohio, but Mansfield has seen so much success so far because of their ability to work as a team.鈥�
