Determining per capita income is a complex exercise that — at best — is a mathematical expression of a moving target. In its simplest terms, per capita income is, according to the Ohio Department of Development, “the income of a given area divided by the resident population of that area.” Sounds simple enough, but arriving at the figure is not.
Ashtabula County is part of a 16-county alliance aimed at marketing the Northeast Ohio region to employers and business investors, many of have never heard of Ashtabula, let alone Mentor, Akron or Youngstown.
Eavesdrop on conversations at the lunch counter, in the aisles of Wal-Mart on a Friday evening or around the sports bar on a Sunday afternoon, and you’re likely to hear some pretty disparaging remarks about the old hometown.
A winter wind blew across the parking lot of the Neighbor to Neighbor Food Pantry next to St. Joseph’s Church in Ashtabula; the six adults lined up at the door turned their faces from the wind, toward the metaphoric concrete wall of the building.
Ashtabula County Commissioner Deborah Newcomb talks to a lot of employers, and they all express the same concern: finding people reliable people with basic skills is a problem.
Some “unemployed” residents find crime to be their best source of steady income. Judge Richard Stevens of Western County Court says he noticed a 50-percent increase in the number of criminal cases handled by his court between 2005 and last year.
One of the fastest growing industries in Ashtabula County is payday or cash advance loan stores, which are popping up in strip malls and shopping plazas all over the county.
Tourism is touted as the new up-and-coming industry in Ashtabula County, a quadripartite savior with wineries, the lodge, Lake Erie and covered bridges for legs.
Have social service agencies and Uncle Sam done their job so well in Ashtabula County that they’ve created a haven for the disabled, indolent, drug-addicted and/or unmotivated?
The availability of subsidized housing is often implicated as one of the most powerful inducements for people to come to Ashtabula County and live off the dole. It’s a line Jim Noyes, executive director of the Ashtabula Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA) often hears, just as the authority gets blamed for the state of all the county’s housing.
One of the many frustrations of being a writer is that what is written is often misconstrued by the reader. Another is that the reader will assume that because the writer quotes someone, the writer personally accepts that observation as gospel and agrees with its premise.
A policy paper by Catholic Charities USA, “Poverty in America: A Threat to the Common Good,” observes that since 1980, increased worker productivity has not resulted in real increased wage gains. Workers have been working harder and being more productive for their employers, but, generally, they have not shared in the bountiful harvest.
To grasp how pervasive low-wages and poverty are in Ashtabula, take a look at the state report cards for the buildings in the Ashtabula Area City School District.
To get a picture of the direction that economic opportunity has taken in northeast Ohio, watch the flow of traffic on Interstate 90 in the early-morning hours.
Back in 2001, Joseph Mayernick, executive director of Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County, told a reporter for the Business Journal that his organization had, in 11 years, retained 4,000 jobs and created more than 14,000 in Ashtabula County.
Sherry Allums talked her husband, Roy, into selling their house in Euclid and moving to Ashtabula County so their grandson, Dylan Christian, could attend better schools.
Growth Partnership for Ashtabula calls the sale of NEO Plastics to RTS Companies of Canada a “win-win situation” for RTS Companies (U.S.) Inc. and Ashtabula County.
As a 501(c)(3) organization, Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County is required to file a 990 form with the Internal Revenue Service. These returns are public documents. This link will download a pdf of the 2005 990 return, the most recent one posted at guidestar.com.
