Last week I was part of a ‘blue ribbon’ group traveling to Washington D.C. to promote the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority, as well as Heath and Licking County. This is part of a continuing and important effort to build federal and state support for the Port Authority (formerly Newark Air Force Base) and the military workloads there, which are now handled by private firms such as Boeing, Bionetics and Goodrich.
This continuing ‘sales’ effort on behalf of our community is intended to keep the local ‘Base’ job center ‘top of mind’ in Ohio’s congressional caucus, both the legislators and more critically their chief staff members. There are times when the opportunity for additional workloads (jobs) can come here and times when the current workloads need to be protected, hence the need to have ‘friends’ in high places, when support is needed.
I was joined on the trip by Heath Mayor Mark Johns, Mike Cadenhead of Bionetics, Charles Dutch of Boeing, Rick Platt the Executive Director of the Port Authority and Ron Sheldon, a Port Authority Board member.
We spent the morning visiting with Congressmen Pat Tiberi, Zack Space, Steve Austria and Bob Latta, and their staffs. In the afternoon we spent considerable time with Senator Sherrod Brown and key staffers, and the Deputy Chief of Staff of Senator George Voinovich.
It should also be noted that Heath Mayor Johns and I had the opportunity to take our presentation to the White House. Thanks to an assist from Senator Brown’s Office we were able to arrange a meeting in the West Wing (White House Office Complex) with Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs/Mayors David Agnew.
Agnew and his staff are the White House points of contact for municipalities large and small, across the nation. As with the members of Congress, we made the case for recruiting more ‘high tech’ jobs for the local Base and Ohio, and related information on the City of Heath and Licking County. We also invited Agnew to visit this area, if and when a trip to Columbus comes together.
As your Commissioner I was pleased with the visit and the many contacts that were renewed. Frankly, such a well organized trip can accomplish more in one day than trying to make contacts from a distance over an entire year. The ‘face to face’ relationships with these key people are invaluable.
This continuing ‘sales’ effort on behalf of our community is intended to keep the local ‘Base’ job center ‘top of mind’ in Ohio’s congressional caucus, both the legislators and more critically their chief staff members. There are times when the opportunity for additional workloads (jobs) can come here and times when the current workloads need to be protected, hence the need to have ‘friends’ in high places, when support is needed.
I was joined on the trip by Heath Mayor Mark Johns, Mike Cadenhead of Bionetics, Charles Dutch of Boeing, Rick Platt the Executive Director of the Port Authority and Ron Sheldon, a Port Authority Board member.
We spent the morning visiting with Congressmen Pat Tiberi, Zack Space, Steve Austria and Bob Latta, and their staffs. In the afternoon we spent considerable time with Senator Sherrod Brown and key staffers, and the Deputy Chief of Staff of Senator George Voinovich.
It should also be noted that Heath Mayor Johns and I had the opportunity to take our presentation to the White House. Thanks to an assist from Senator Brown’s Office we were able to arrange a meeting in the West Wing (White House Office Complex) with Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs/Mayors David Agnew.
Agnew and his staff are the White House points of contact for municipalities large and small, across the nation. As with the members of Congress, we made the case for recruiting more ‘high tech’ jobs for the local Base and Ohio, and related information on the City of Heath and Licking County. We also invited Agnew to visit this area, if and when a trip to Columbus comes together.
As your Commissioner I was pleased with the visit and the many contacts that were renewed. Frankly, such a well organized trip can accomplish more in one day than trying to make contacts from a distance over an entire year. The ‘face to face’ relationships with these key people are invaluable.
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