The southwestern Ohio community of Wilmington is a little closer to recovering the thousands of jobs lost with the departure of DHL a few years ago. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.
The announcement of 140 new jobs and 50 retained jobs at Cole Taylor Mortgage – an investment of $3.4 million – is good news, says Gov. John Kasich – even though the company could be sold to a private equity firm.
“Small banks have a tendency to be bought, and sometimes you never know how it’s, what’s going to happen whenever final decisions are made.”
JobsOhio CEO John Miner made the announcement, but there wasn’t much mention of the privatized job creating entity that critics say isn’t transparent and should be investigated for potential conflicts of interest among its board members. Kasich says that criticism is unfounded and partisan.
“Most of the complaining is, you know, it’s political, and brought to us by people who left us in a real mess when we came in.”
JobsOhio is exempt from state ethics laws and is self-policing. Kasich says JobsOhio is subject to public audits, but not by the state auditor – its finances are reviewed by an auditor selected by JobsOhio. Kasich says this brings the total of created or retained jobs in Wilmington in the last eight months to more than 1100.
“Another good news story down here in Wilmington, but a long way to go.”
That includes 85 jobs at the deck and fence company TimberTech. The company is closing its Columbus factory and moving jobs to Wilmington with the help of a state tax credit.
