In a recent Times-Reporter article, CIC Seeks Financial Aid From Commissioners, January 8, 2011, it was reported that the Community Improvement Corporation of Tuscarawas County (CIC) requested an interest free loan from the County Commissioners in the amount of $75,000 to help cover staff expenses of $100,000. To help cover the other $25,000, the CIC requested a matching fund grant of $22,500. Without this help, it is possible that the CIC could not meet expenses and would have to close. The County Commissioners made no commitment but are looking into the request, and well they should.
Over the past years, beginning in 2001, the CIC along, with the Tuscarawas County Port Authority, has been involved in the development of the Tuscarawas Regional Technology Park. The plan was to create a high tech park on the east end of New Philadelphia near Kent State Tuscarawas which would attract high tech research and manufacturing. If successful, such a park would provide jobs, increased tax revenues, and prosperity for the region. But, it hasn’t worked that way even though the City of New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas County, the State of Ohio, and the Federal Government, have dumped in more than 12.5 million dollars to its construction. And what do we have to show for it?
Cost overruns for one thing. A law suit or two for another. A hilly area where level ground for construction is nonexistent. Streets, sewers, and water lines which lay unused. A water tank, at a cost of 1.2 million dollars, designed to supply the Tech Park and the east end of town, which is providing water to residences. Oh, yes. There is also a fiberglass broadband linkup ready to go. The only thing missing is interest by businesses willing to buy property there.
Of the 12.5 million dollars already spent or committed to the Tech Park, $5.4 million are committed for construction of an Incubator Building. The Incubator will provide prospective businesses with a place to use as start-up sites from which to grow and expand, either in the Tech Park or elsewhere. It will be a year or two until the Incubator is ready for occupancy, but even then there is no surety that tenants will be occupying the facility. And where will this money come from?
The State of Ohio, the federal government will give grants and loans, as will probably the county and surrounding cities. Kent State Tuscarawas made a $809,000 donation. Which brings up the question, if Kent State is able to donate $809 thousand for the Incubator, why tuition raises there?
But there is a bigger question. Considering the 17.9 million dollars already spent or allocated for the Tech Park, is it really worth it to the public as a whole? When does such a large expenditure reach the point of no return? When does the realization that throwing money at a lost cause isn’t going to work? Government is fallible. Government fails because it is unable to understand that it lacks the knowledge to operate a business in a way in which the public in general profits rather than a small, select group. It fails to realize that it can not succeed in such a project when the principle decision makers do not understand the basic principles of business.
If there were a real need on the part of private business to have such a tech park, private business would develop it because there would be a profit to be made. Private business requires a profit on investment to exist. If there is none, investors don’t put their money on the line. Government doesn’t have this outlook. Governments, at all levels, use theft of earned income, through taxation, for to finance projects no investor would buy into because of the lack of return on their investment.
Ten years of false premises, poor planning, tunnel vision on the part of the CIC regarding the New Philadelphia Technical Park, has led to an 18 million dollar debacle which we can no longer afford. The plan made in times when the economy was on a rise no longer applies. It is now obvious that the New Philadelphia Technical Park is not high on the list of desirable locations for businesses. Negative factors include the difficulty of doing business in Ohio, lack of accessibility to the Tech Park, lack of a comprehensive marketing plan, an advertising budget and sales staff which is inadequate to the task, and continued dependence on consultants who have failed to produce tenants for the Tech Park. The inability of management to overcome these obstacles has been accepted as the norm by those who are responsible for its success.
There are only two choices left to the CIC and those who are proponents of the New Philadelphia Technical Park. The first is to accept that the plan has failed, its good intentions not meeting the requirements which businesses desire, and let the plan pass away. The second is to objectively appraise the work already done, determine what caused the failure, and adapt the site to another, more practical use. In either case, rather than spending an additional 5.5 million dollars for the Incubator Building, return the money to the public coffers to reduce the public debt. To continue to spend taxpayer dollars for a project which, in ten years, has failed to produce even one seriously interested response from a viable business is a breach of trust to taxpaying workers and businesses be they located locally or nationally.
It is sad but undeniable that the Tech Park failed because of poor planning and inadequate management. Had the original planners done their due diligence when considering a project of this type, the proposed project might never have been seriously considered, saving millions of dollars which have been spent accomplishing nothing but increased debt. It is time to let it go.
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