DaytonDailyNews.com

Some prominent Daytonians are heading to the southwest on Wednesday, Feb. 11, and it's not a trip to escape the cold, dreary Ohio weather.

They're traveling to Mesa, Ariz. to try to attract residents there to the Miami Valley as research missions near that city's air base prepare to relocate as part of the Base Realignment and Closure legislation.

Colleen Ryan, former commander of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base who is now leading BRAC efforts for the Dayton Development Coalition, said about 38 elected leaders, officials, business owners and other representatives will make the trip.

Ryan calls the expedition a chance to do what in military circles is called "showing the flag" to tout the positives of living in the Miami Valley.

"We want to show the flag for the whole Dayton region," Ryan said.

The Mesa locals are invited to a sort of job fair Thursday where local leaders, Realtors and other professionals will give them any information they need about the Dayton region.

Greene County Commissioner Rick Perales is one elected leader going on the trip and he hopes the group can entice residents whose jobs are moving here to come along.

"It all comes down to us giving them some additional tools to make some difficult relocation decisions," he said.

Perales was one of a group of 70 that made a similar trip to San Antonio last fall, a trip he said, led to a good amount of interest from workers there.

Perales said it is important to attract workers now assigned to missions relocating to Wright-Patterson because they will help make the BRAC process here a success.

"A lot of people say we won BRAC in 2005," he explained. "We didn't win BRAC until these missions get off the ground in 2011."

No decisions have been made about future trips, but Ryan said others could be in the works, including most likely a trip back to San Antonio closer to the relocation deadline.

"We'll have to wait and see how successful this trip is," Ryan said.