EATON — The Preble County Economic Development Partnership (PCDP) is working on establishing another internship program for high school students in the county. During the Preble County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, Nov. 26, PCDP Chair Walt Hibner and Economic Development Director Brenda Latanza with PCDP reported on their efforts.
“We are also getting ready to start another internship program close to 2019 with our high school students. We already have eight interested entities. It is not just manufacturers, as Lawn Plus and the Village of Lewisburg are also interested. We are not just going to be looking at manufacturing internship opportunities. It will be even better,” Latanza said.
The Partnership has also met with the hotel investor representative regarding other methods of funding. Thus far, they seem interested in Preble County’s Revolving Loan Fund.
In other news:
•Latanza is the chair of the State of Ohio ACT Council and the only economic development member who sits on that conference. Most of the other members are educators, with some members of the Department of Education. Preble County Economic Development Partnership members attended the ACT Conference, which they reported as successful.
They also attended the Ohio Economic Development Conference, which had a large focus on Workforce Development and best practices.
“It was a good conference and a good way to meet and mingle with people in the state,” Hibner said. “It is heavy on economic development folks and a good group to interact with.”
•Latanza also reported on the Hiring Event which was held at the Gym at Eagles Point.
“We always desire to see more people turn out for that. We are also learning some dos and don’ts for the hiring events and how to make those better. We had some transportation worked out, but really nobody took advantage of the transportation. I guess being right here in the middle of Eaton, it wasn’t too hard to get to,” Latanza said.
•PCDP is working with the schools and companies to reschedule Manufacturing Days for Twin Valley South and Preble Shawnee, since their day was canceled due to weather.
•Regarding the old Hines Truck Stop, the project will be ready later this week for application submittal, following the completion of a few additional items.
