WADSWORTH – Business and industry is growing in Medina County and local experts think that trend will continue in 2017.

That was one of the messages conveyed at the annual meeting of the Medina County Economic Development Corporation March 16 in Wadsworth.

“Medina County is poised well for future growth,” MCEDC Director Bethany Dentler told 168 members and guests gathered in a banquet room at the Galaxy Restaurant.

Vice president Joe Kohmann told guests at the meeting the MCEDC goal for 2017 is to assist 38 companies expand their operations in the county. That would create at least 500 new jobs, and absorb 600,000 square feet of space with capital investments exceeding $75 million.

Prospects for economic development this year come on the heels of a busy and eventful 2016. Dentler said she and her staff identified 66 companies that announced plans to spend $133 million on capital investments last year and hire 644 new workers.

“Of those new and expanding companies, the Medina County Economic Development Corporation directly worked with 38 of them, which created 617 new jobs and invested $119 million in capital spending,” Dentler said.

Capital investments around the county last year included construction of a $9 million Holiday Inn Express in Montville, an $8.4 million expansion at Fuserashi International Technology in Valley City, a $5.4 million addition at Cornwall Quality Tools in Wadsworth and $8.4 million expansion at Medina Plating.

Ned Hill, an economist from Ohio State University, gave the keynote address on manufacturing at the MCDAC annual meeting. He told area employers Ohio and the United States are on the verge of a new industrial revolution driven by dramatic advances in digital technology and integration.

That means manufacturing will remain an important part of the Ohio economy despite dramatic declines in the numbers employed in manufacturing over the past two decades. Hill said the top three employers in the state in 1995 were General Motors (63,400), Ford (24,000) and Kroger (21,700). Last year they were the Cleveland Clinic (48,220), Walmart (46,000) and Kroger (41,900).

Ironically, Hill believes a shortage of qualified workers is one of the major challenges facing manufacturers in Medina County and Ohio.

“The manufacturing workforce is broken in ways that won’t soon respond to wage pressures,” Hill said.

Hills blames manufactures themselves for causing the workforce shortage by not developing young workers.

“We’ve had two generations of manufacturing leaders who haven’t trained anyone to replace them,” he said.

Hill also said increasing the number of qualified workers is up to manufactures themselves who can reopen their doors to teenagers working part time or during the summer and establishing systems that enable their older skilled workers to pass down their knowledge to young workers.

Dentler said MCEDC is aware of the workforce problems facing area manufacturers and will make the issue a focus in 2017.

“The workforce challenge has many facets, and these needs must be addressed through a locally-driven system if Medina County wants to continue its steady growth,” Dentler said.

Dentler said MCDEC has been collaborating with schools, Medina County Job and Family Services and the Veterans Administration to attract new people to manufacturing careers.

MCEDC is a public-private nonprofit organization with membership composed of a wide variety of companies, government entities and educational institutions. The agency manages economic development growth in Medina County, which has been the fastest growing county in northern Ohio for the past two decades.

The organization also markets and manages tax abatement programs for three enterprise zones and 12 community reinvestment areas in Medina County.