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Region's water to be marketed to draw new businesses

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By Lynn Hulsey, Staff Writer 5:31 PM Tuesday, January 5, 2010

DAYTON — Marketing the region’s water is the latest tool in the area’s economic development arsenal, with officials hoping to capitalize on the huge underground aquifer, according to Maureen Patterson, vice president of stakeholder relations for the Dayton Development Coalition.

Speaking Tuesday, Jan. 5, at the Montgomery County Commission work session, Patterson said H2Open for Business will tout the Dayton region’s water-related assets in an effort to draw new businesses. Officials also hope to develop the area as a “water knowledge center” leading to student internships and jobs and as a destination for water-related professional and technical events.

The city of Dayton, the Miami Conservancy District and the county are partners in the effort, which is in the early stages. They’ve set up the Dayton Region Water Roundtable, which includes a variety of government, business, educational and other leaders. Officials hope to eventually include all public suppliers of water in the area. Dayton firm Real Art came up with the marketing slogan and the coalition will hire a consulting and marketing company to assist with the effort, Patterson said.

She said the 1.5 trillion gallon buried aquifer and 6,000 miles of rivers and streams in the Miami Valley offers 220 million gallons of unused water capacity per day. Just as the region touts its “crossroads of America” location at the intersection of interstates 75 and 70, officials also hope the water supply can be a draw for manufacturers and other businesses.

“Bringing Coke from Atlanta would be a great thing,” Patterson joked, prompting laughter from officials still stinging from NCR’s decision to relocate to Georgia.

No wage increase for Teamsters

Also on Tuesday, commissioners approved a labor contract with the Teamsters Local 957, which includes no wage increases in the first two years and a wage reopener provision for the third year. It covers about 54 employees of the county engineer’s office.

“We’re very pleased,” Engineer Joe Litvin said.

It comes as the county begins the year with a budget that assumes wage freezes and across the board cuts. Sheriff’s office unions have also agreed to no wage increases in contracts approved last year and officials are hoping to achieve the same agreements with other unions this year.

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