Thursday, April 06, 2000
Butler, Warren quit jobs team
BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Fast-growing Butler and Warren counties will pull out of a Greater Cincinnati job-training coalition to form their own alliance.
With companies throughout the Tristate hurting for workers, civic leaders are pushing a regional approach to provide competent, trained workers. But months before such an effort is finalized, two counties where the growth has been highest are dropping out.
Butler and Warren had already committed to the Southwest Ohio Regional Workforce Policy Board, which was to be up and running by July 1. But their location between two of Ohio's largest cities forced them to rethink their decision.
“We are unique, because we are the bridge between Cincinnati and Dayton,” said Chuck Furmon, a Butler County commissioner. There are just too many commuters to Dayton in both counties for either to align its job training only with Cincinnati, he said.
Since both counties share that common problem, as well as fast residential and business growth, they are forming their own alliance, said Pat South, a Warren County commissioner.
They will still work cooperatively with the Cincinnati-area policy board, as well as a similar program in Dayton, said Joseph L. Lupo, superintendent of the Butler County Joint Vocational School District. But their separate partnership is the best way to address the needs of each county's residents, he said.
Ohio in 1997 required that each area of the state establish a regional board to set work-force development policy in that area. With low unemployment rates throughout the state, companies are clamoring for qualified workers.
The need is evident in Butler and Warren counties, where sprawl from Cincinnati and Dayton is coming to a head. According to the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services, from 1995 through 1999, Hamilton County added 9,000 new jobs. By comparison, Warren County added 10,000 new jobs, and Butler added about 19,000 during that same time.
“Am I disappointed? Sure,” said Peter Strange, president of Frank Messer & Sons Construction of Bond Hill and head of the Southwest Ohio job program. “Do I have any doubts at all we will be working together in the future? Not at all.”
Certainly, the remaining members of the coalition — Cincinnati, and Hamilton and Clermont counties — have enough economic mass to sustain the program, Mr. Strange said. The main goal is to match workers with jobs, and this decision will not hamper that, he added.
The Warren-Butler alliance will not take away from each county's job training efforts, Mr. Lupo said. Rather, working together will allow them to avoid much duplication and focus attention where companies and workers need it.
The organizers hope to have the alliance ready by July 1, when the old Job Training Partnership Act is replaced by the federal Workforce Investment Act passed in 1998. It's a rethinking of how workers are trained for jobs in demand.
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