By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The Crawford County Education and Economic Development Partnership (CCEEDP) is spreading its wings and becoming more visible to the community.
CCEEDP cut the ribbon on its new home located at the Courthouse Annex building on East Mansfield Street in Bucyrus on Monday evening. Individuals and groups instrumental to the CCEEDP, Crawford: 20/20 Vision, and the county joined CCEEDP Executive Director Dave Williamson in the celebration.
“We’re glad to have all the help from all the different sources that made this building possible for economic development for Crawford County,” said Williamson, “for the work that we all and you all are doing in terms of trying to build prosperity in our county and of course the work that goes on in 20/20.”
“This really is an example of collaboration,” said Steve Crall, president of the Crawford County Partnership for Economic Development. “This is a collaboration between private and public industries and it’s really a special thing when you see a community come together with this type of collaboration event.”
Much of that collaboration could not have been done, however, without the generous help from the Timken Foundation and the county commissioners.
“The Timken Company in Crawford County has had a long history of really collaboration and this community is what it is today for most part about what the Timken Company has done for us,” Crall said as he introduced Bob Hiltbrand, plant manager of the Bucyrus Timken Plant.
Hiltbrand said when he came to Bucyrus two years ago, Williamson sat down with him and explained about a unique program within the county: the Crawford: 20/20 Vision. Hildebrand joined the Crawford County Partnership for Economic Development’s Board of Trustees. It was there that he started to understand more about the needs of the community.
“We talked about a permanent home for the Crawford County partnership,” said Hiltbrand. They sent a grant request in to the Timken Foundation, who then decided to turn it into a challenge grant. The Timken Foundation offered a grant of $67,000 if the CCEEDP could match the funds.
“Immediately Dave (Williamson) worked with the county commissioners,” explained Hiltbrand, “and, I think it was less than a week, the county commissioners came back and said ‘hey, we’ll match that, not a problem.’”
County Commissioner Doug Weisenauer was suitably impressed with how far the organization had come.
“I never envisioned this back in 2005 or something like that when this conversation started about forming this organization. Up until a year ago the organization was tucked away in a little side office off a obscure hallway in the courthouse,” Weisenauer said to a few chuckles. He was glad the CCEEDP was able to become a more visible organization in the community.
County Auditor and Chairwoman of the Vision Committee Robin Hildebrand seemed to sum up the event the best.
“What a great thing that we finally have a home for all our volunteers because that is what Crawford: 20/20 is about, is our volunteers.”
“We really need to honor and make a tribute to all the volunteers that make 20/20 the things happen in our community. We’re thrilled to part of that, we’re thrilled to have a home and now we can keep working hard towards the future, making things better,” said Robin Hildebrand.
Doug Leuthold, of Advanced Fiber Technology and the head of the Business Success and Job Availability Committee, announced that they will be taking on a county-wide supervisory training program starting in October. He said they will be putting the program in place to help “super-workers” in their supervisory positions. It will be targeted to all sectors of the community.
The training will take place in CCEEDP’s building. The newly renovated building now has modern amenities that include a large community room with the ability to host meetings and training sessions for 40 to 50 people. It also offers a smaller conference room, a small kitchen, and other amenities for multi-media needs.
Williamson also gave credit to the Bucyrus Area Community Foundation.
“If you go back to the very beginning, none of this would have happened if somebody wouldn’t have had faith in what we were talking about and gave us some guidance and that was the Bucyrus Area Community Foundation. They’ve given more than anybody,” Williamson said to a round of applause. “They believed us when we really didn’t have any credibility. . . They believed us then and gently had us listening to the right people so that we got the right ideas about collective impact, collaboration and unification and alignment. All of those things that are so important for our county.”
“We have a vision that’s shared across the county and we have a direction,” said Williamson.