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COTC - What's In The Box?

2011-01-31T13:44:00.002-05:00

The Groundhog Day Storm of 2011

2011-01-30T09:06:00.003-05:00

I was told by a fellow Groundhog Committee member Friday night that a big storm is supposed to hit this week and they have named it the Groundhog Day Storm.

Why would I care? Because our 55th Annual Groundhog Breakfast is now five days away - February 4th. We are expecting 650 people - at 6:00 a.m.

I can remember past GH Breakfasts where the roads were bad and the temperatures were well below freezing, but the GH Breakfast still went on as planned.

2011 will be no different.

We have a wonderful morning planned for everyone, so just get up a little earlier than planned, and make your way over to Adena Hall on the OSU Newark Campus this Friday. You will be glad you did!

Thank You Time Warner Business Class!

2011-01-28T11:39:00.002-05:00

Don't you love getting an unexpected gift?

This was delivered today from Time Warner Business Class, giving us recognition for being

named #4 in The List in Business First. Too cool!

What Doesn't Belong?

2011-01-27T08:33:00.007-05:00

I grew up watching Sesame Street. I can remember a segment of the show that had a little song about "what three things are the same and which one doesn't belong. . ." - Here is what prompted the flashback to this song as I walked around the office this morning:

Yes, my desk "just doesn't belong" among the clean desks in this office.

It's Almost That Time. . .

2011-01-24T16:43:00.002-05:00

Patrick Guanciale's blog today has a sneak peak at our Groundhog.

You just never know where he will appear next.

Congrats Vicky!

2011-01-20T13:36:00.002-05:00

Vicky Crist in our office was presented with a gift today from the Human Resources Management Association. They wanted to thank her for all her hard work and dedication to the HRMA and said she deserves much of the credit of the success of the group.

Congrats Vicky!

Economic Impact

2011-01-19T14:39:00.003-05:00

I recently attended a meeting of workenomics and heard a startling statistic. In 2010, Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services pumped $231 million into the economy of Licking County.

$231 million.

Around $140 million went to food stamps and programs for the aged, blind and disabled. The remaining amount went to medicaid.

1 out of every 6 people in Licking County were "touched" by ODJFS.

There are certainly different ways of looking at this. On the surface, it would seem a bit disappointing that so many people needed help in our community. But given the economy, that's probably not too surprising.

From a more positive view, the increase usage of those programs did increase employment for those in nursing homes and grocery stores.

No matter what viewpoint you may have on this, $231 million had a strong impact on Licking County in 2010.

Campaign For Jobs

2011-01-19T08:39:00.000-05:00

A message from the Ohio Chamber:

Following a seismic election last fall in which voters told their elected officials “we need jobs and we need them now” the Ohio Chamber today launched the Campaign for Jobs. Built on a ten plank platform of reforming state and local government, reducing business costs, transforming our state and local tax climate and improving our infrastructure – among others – the Campaign will be aggressive and innovative.

Thanks to all of your hard work on so many legislative issues in the past, we can build on what we’ve created and take on this bold initiative. As the linchpin to our current advocacy efforts, you will play an important role in the success of the Campaign for Jobs. Policy makers have a real opportunity – starting now – to Make Ohio Great Again and your feedback will help make it possible.

Just like a traditional campaign, the Campaign for Jobs has a significant grassroots component and a Web site to support it; www.campaignforjobs.com. There you will find information about the campaign, the agenda the Ohio Chamber will be pursuing and opportunities to get involved.

Thank you again for what we’ve accomplished together. Now I urge you to join the Campaign for Jobs and help Make Ohio Great Again!

Prevent Crime Against Women

2011-01-13T16:54:00.001-05:00

A message from Annarino Martial Arts:

Spoilers Beware

2011-01-13T09:23:00.002-05:00

. . .you will not be ruining my day today.

Thanks to Nicholas.

If you are seeking transformation in 2011, there is no better place to go than to his place.

The Elimination of Ohio's Estate Tax

2011-01-11T14:42:00.001-05:00

Hot off the presses:

House GOP Introduces Bill to Eliminate Ohio’s Estate Tax

COLUMBUS—Assistant House Majority Whip Cheryl Grossman (R-Grove City) and State Representative Jay Hottinger (R-Newark) today jointly introduced legislation to eliminate the Ohio estate tax, also known as the “death tax.” House Bill 3 will allow small business owners, farmers and homeowners to rightfully pass on their assets to their heirs without fear of being taxed twice on their life’s savings, which will make Ohio more competitive for entrepreneurial growth and investment.

“House Bill 3 is just one of the many ways we will be working to aggressively improve the way the state of Ohio does business,” said Rep. Grossman. “When you hear of the 400,000 jobs that have left the state of Ohio, 90 percent of those have gone to other states—not overseas. We need to be more business-friendly, and I think that this legislation is a huge step in the right direction for the people of Ohio and for the generations to follow.”

“We are beginning the process of ending a fundamentally unfair and egregious tax, a tax that is often the case of double taxation,” said Rep. Hottinger. “This bill is about restoring fairness to Ohio’s hardworking citizens, our families, small business owners, as well as our state’s farmers. Ending this tax will have a tremendous effect on job creation in the state of Ohio.”

Ohio currently has the lowest estate tax exemption in the United States. Only $338,333 of the taxable estate is exempt from the estate tax, compared to an average exemption amount of approximately $1.7 million for other states that have an estate tax. For this reason, supporters of the elimination of the estate tax believe that it takes direct aim at Ohio’s middle class, undermines job creation, and discourages saving and investing in the state.

“The estate tax represents essentially a 7 percent incentive for capital to not come to Ohio or to leave Ohio,” said Jack Boyle, executive director of the Ohio Prosperity Initiative. “[House Bill 3] is the beginning of Ohio making its step back to competitiveness. We’ve had a 30-year slide of our state’s economic fortunes, and this is the day that we start changing that.”

“The Ohio Farm Bureau has long stood as an opponent of the estate tax,” said Beth Vanderkooi, director of state policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. “We’re very excited that Representatives Grossman and Hottinger are going to try to [enact this bill] in Ohio this year, and we’re strongly behind that.”

House Bill 3 was assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee, where it will undergo further consideration.

Thank you Representatives Grossman and Hottinger.

Health Care Repeal Underway

2011-01-06T14:38:00.002-05:00

Today I participated in a conference call with the US Chamber regarding the initiative to repeal the Health Care Bill previous passed.

Next Wednesday, January 12th, HB 2 -a Bill to repeal the Health Care Reform Bill, will be voted on in the House of Representatives. This vote is an up or down vote, no amendments allowed.

Due to the large number of freshman congressmen who campaigned on repealing the Health Care Bill, support for this bill is strong. And interestingly enough, it is only two pages long.

HR 144 will also be voted on next week. This is a Resolution to repeal the 1099 reporting requirements which were snuck into the Health Care Reform Bill. There are 108 co-sponsors of this Bill and it also has strong support.

I am pleased to report that Congressman Pat Tiberi (12th District) not only supports HB 2 and HR 144, but is a co-sponsor of both.

I haven't heard back from Congressman Bob Gibb's (18th District) office yet, but will update this blog when I do.

Want to Win $25,000?

2010-12-29T15:15:00.003-05:00

Are you an outstanding up-and-coming Licking County company? Do you meet the following criteria:

Organization or company must be operating for the purpose of the commercial production of a product or service.
The organization must be headquartered in the state of Ohio.
The organization must have a new or re-designed product or service recently launched into the marketplace or ready to be launched in 2011.
The innovation should be unique or fill a needed void in the market or industry in which it serves.

If your company does meet the above criteria, let me know. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce sponsors the Ohio Chamber Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award ($25,000) and only accepts one nomination from each Chamber in Ohio.

Deadline to submit our nomination is March 1, 2011.

Licking County Chamber Ranked 4th

2010-12-27T13:46:00.005-05:00

In the latest issue of Business First, the Licking County Chamber of Commerce is ranked 4th in The List for Chambers of Commerce. We are behind ColumbusChamber, Dublin Chamber and Worthington Area Chamber. The ranking is based on number of members.

This is certainly worth celebrating. Thank you to all of our valued members for making this possible.

The Groundhog Committee

2010-12-20T20:07:00.003-05:00

The food has been tested. The award has been chosen and the award winner selected. The keynote speaker is confirmed and the celebrity groundhog is . . . still a secret. Even from me.

These are just a few of the details that the Groundhog Committee does year-round to prepare for the Annual Groundhog Breakfast. And it is just a round the corner - February 4, 2011. Over 300 people have signed up already.

Tonight we celebrated and did our annual ornament gift exchange at the Granville Inn.

A big thank you to all the committee members who help up through the year with this community tradition!

Technology Survey

2010-12-16T16:48:00.003-05:00

The Ohio Chamber is now working with Technology for Ohio's Tomorrow to collect data about your technology uses and needs.

Please take a moment and fill out this survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JR6QY9Y.

Thank you.

Firewomen

2010-12-15T15:26:00.005-05:00

Well, we may not be Firewomen exactly, but we did learn how to put out a fire with a fire extinguisher today.

P - Pull the pin

A - Aim at the base of the fire

S - Squeeze the top handle all the way

S - Sweep from side to side

Thank you to C-TEC and Lt. Ashcraft for providing us with this training today.

Where's The Tree?

2010-12-13T15:29:00.002-05:00

My office has been taken over by boxes (Thanks PCA)! Wonder what will be in these boxes when I am finished?? A very cool gift!

Can you even see my Christmas Tree??

Ohio Needs Your Help

2010-12-10T14:16:00.002-05:00

Governor-Elect John Kasich has a website called Fix Ohio Now.

This site features a short video from John and asks for your help and ideas on a number of items including:

Ideas on how to fix Ohio
Report corruption
Report government waste
Report over regulation

You can even send them your resume.

So let your voice and ideas be heard.

The Ohio State University at Newark

2010-11-29T13:00:00.003-05:00

Received a very nice booklet today about The Ohio State University at Newark. Impressive.

Here are some interesting stats (from 1999 to 2009)

Total Enrollment: 1999 - 1,883 2009 - 2,515

Full-Time Enrollment: 1999 - 1,598 2009 - 2,361

First Time in College: 1999 - 618 2009 - 1,083

Student Population Under 21: 1999 - 1,068 2009 - 1,689

Racial/Ethnic Student Population: 1999 - 89 2009 - 375

*Note: When the university opened in 1957, there were 80 students and eight faculty members.

Congratulations - we are proud to have OSU in our community!

A Visitor from Missouri

2010-11-23T10:23:00.002-05:00

We receive all kinds of mail at the Chamber. Good, bad and occasionally the ugly. This week I received a letter from a woman who recently stayed in our community for a few days.

Sometimes we get so used to seeing the bad things in our community, that we forget all the great things that surround us everyday. It really doesn't take much effort to be friendly to others.

Read what she had to say:

As a recent visitor to your community I would like to express my thanks to many members of your community. A group of five of us women came to Newark to make baskets at the Longaberger factory. We opted to take advantage of a package deal offered by Longaberger.

We stayed at The Place Off The Square. The hotel was very nice with Longaberger items throughout. The staff was helpful and friendly, explaining all that was offered in our package. We received breakfast for two mornings and lunch for one day. We were also able to make baskets, tour the Homestead and other things through this Longaberger package. However, this was just the beginning.

I walked around downtown Newark one morning and admired the cleanliness of the community. The older buildings downtown with arched windows were nice to admire. My favorite was an old limestone jail that needs to be restored so that I can come and tour! I also loved the bronze displays of Mark Twain, the grandfather and the women chatting. The picnic tables around the courthouse were a nice touch - I hope your citizens take advantage of your friendly community.

We spent the day at the Longaberger factory, making baskets and enjoying the morning with our assigned Longaberger staff. I want to thank Richard for his help with my baskets. I believe Joe helped some of the other members of my group. And a female staff member helped one member of my group - she too was very friendly by Jo Ellen could not remember her helper's name. We then enjoyed a delicious lunch and shopping.

Upon our return to Newark we decided to do a little antique shopping. It was close to five o'clock and the staff at Matilda Charlotte Antiques, Inc. said she would be glad to stay until we were finished shopping. For what more could a person ask?

We chose to spend an evening at Buckeye Winery (also part of our package). The wine drinkers in our group enjoyed a tasty wine slushy. We all enjoyed crackers and cheeses, that were chosen, at our request, bu our host and were delicious. The staff at Buckeye Winery were kind and helpful, also. We had forgotten to bring our coupon so the staff at the winery simply called The Place, and it was promptly handled.

We ate dinner at The Grill Chop House. What a wonderful choice! We received a discount on our meals because we were staying at The Place. Again, we were treated to excellent food and wonderful service. Anthony, our server, was prompt, efficient and readily answered our questions about the community.

On our way out of town one of my friends wanted to stop at the bakery for snacks for the trip home. There was a cute little cake with one candle and Jamie wanted to buy it (Jamie's son was celebrating his first birthday the next day). The staff at Riley's Bakery & Catering informed Jamie it would not survive a nine hour trip but offered to GIVE the cake to her. Again, our food was delicious and the service even better.

I want to thank you and your community members for the delightful few days we spent in Newark. It is not often that travelers have only positive experiences - but we did. This was the second trip to Longaberger for some of my group but our first stay in Newark. We are already planning our trip for next year and because of our delightful experiences we have more friends that want to come with us.

Buzz Word of the Day

2010-11-22T22:59:00.003-05:00

. . .is uncertainty.

Today I, and others, met with Congressman-Elect Bob Gibbs. We wanted to familiarize him with Licking County, especially our economic development diamond, the 79Seventy Advanced Materials Corridor.

After he listened to us, he shared what his top priorities would be when he gets to Congress. His #1 is reducing deficit spending. Period.

He went on to say that uncertainty about what Washington is going to do in 2011 is the driving factor for lack of investment on all levels, personal and business alike. When consumers don't know what the taxation level is going to be or what programs will or will not be extended, it causes so much uncertainty that they (consumers/investors) freeze up and put off decisions, causing our economy to stall.

Later in my day I was in another meeting where uncertainty on the state level was mentioned. We were discussing budget issues and whether or not a certain program would be funded again in the new budget cycle. It makes it difficult to make a decision on whether or not to move forward with a new project when you are taking a big risk not knowing if the funding will be there or not. Holding up a project for six months when a developer is ready to go now does not make for a happy developer nor a happy community.

I am one that would just like to know the facts, make a decision and move on. Although I may not like hearing the truth or bad news, I would much rather know what I have to deal with rather than play a long, drawn-out game of uncertainty.

Uncertainty can suck you dry in terms of efficiency and productivity. It causes doubt, which can lead to mistrust and skepticism. Not something you want in your workplace or even your personal life.

Don't be the person who is causing these feelings at home or at work. Just make the decision and deliver the news.

President Obama and Chamber Are Talking

2010-11-20T21:34:00.004-05:00

President Obama and the US Chamber are talking.

Story here.

Excerpt here:

Donohue last week signaled his desire to a cease-fire, telling his board of directors in a speech Wednesday: “This is not personal with us. It’s about representing our members and advancing ideas that we think are essential to expand our economy, compete in the world, and create American jobs. We’re prepared to join with President Obama, his administration, and both parties in Congress whenever we can to achieve these goals.”Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45445.html#ixzz15seP318F

Lovin' Licking County

2010-11-13T22:15:00.002-05:00

If you haven't visited our online magazine, Images of Licking County, you are missing out.

Check out these 11 videos:
http://www.imageslickingcounty.com/videos

Or look at the beautiful photo gallery:
http://www.imageslickingcounty.com/photos

Licking County is a wonderful place to be.

Brew & Wine Fest - Thank You

2010-11-11T12:16:00.004-05:00

The Brew & Wine Fest was a big success, but it wouldn't have been such a great event without the help of MANY people. I would like to thank Cheri, Mandy and Vicky at the Chamber first and foremost for being awesome! Then a big thanks goes to Patrick Guanciale, Tim Fitterer, Shawn McDonald, Cheri Hottinger, Dave Hardy and Todd Harrold for bartending that night. It's a huge job and you all do it well. To Sam Schnaidt and everyone at Apple Tree Auction Center, thanks for providing a wonderful facility to host this event. Mike Morris went above and beyond the call of duty as our Events Chair along with his wife Connie, selling 50/50 tickets, cleaning up and directing traffic. Ruth Handelman, Amber Favuzzi, Erika Molyneux and Craig Young from the Events Committee did whatever it took to help with trash, supplies and clean up - much appreciated. The folks at Doug's Farside, Damon's, Big Apple Cafe, Mattingly Foods, KFC and Longaberger Golf Club provided wonderful appetizers, stood on their feet all night and continued to smile - so great! A big thanks to Caribou Coffee staff for the delightful coffee! Then to all of my beer and wine friends, including all of you from Buckeye Winery, Matesich, Beverage Source, Browns Distributing, Roots & Shoots and Raven's Glenn for pouring great samples, providing information and positive energy during the crazy busy times. Thanks to Dick Shoults for all of the ice and beer/wine runs; you were awesome! The event was a hit because of the generous publicity of WNKO - Tom Swank, Fred Klein, Dave Doney, Ben Cruise and others at the radio station. And the event would not be possible without our generous sponsors: Bafford Spine & Rehab, The Advocate, buckeyediscounts.com, PNC Bank, The Investor's Edge (who also had great desserts!), H & R Block, Hendrickson Auxiliary Axle and Coldwell Banker/King Thompson. Also thanks to Heather Hottinger for helping set-up, Ray Rector for carrying in beer and Ron Crist for helping with registration and making a "cup" run! It takes a huge group to pull off a big event like this, and I want to convey a huge thanks for everything. If I left anyone out - thanks!

Posted by: Jennifer McDonald