Development leader predicts impact of Intel investment will be felt in Crawford County
Intel's plan to invest $20 billion to build two semiconductor plants in Licking County will have an impact on the local economy, too, predicted the Crawford Partnership's leader.
"It's significant, and it's so important to the future, because we are such a technology economy today," said Gary Frankhouse, the group's executive and economic director.
The plants, also called fabs, will employ 3,000 workers, and 7,000 construction workers will be needed to build them, Intel officials have said.
One of the most direct benefits for Bucyrus' economy has to do with what those plants will be manufacturing, Frankhouse said: computer chips.
Last year, GE-Savant ceased production of A19 LED light bulbs at its lighting plant in Bucyrus.
At a May meeting with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and leaders of IUE-CWA Local 84704, Frankhouse spoke of how the cost of importing the chips used in the bulbs had made continuing production in the U.S. cost-prohibitive for the company.
"There's such a desperate need for chips — even these LED bulbs have chips in them," he said last week. "And when they're saying an auto, and electric auto, has over 200 chips ... you can imagine the demand for chips.
"I think the future is a lot brighter now for the lighting plant when you see that there's logistic supply chain issues being addressed."
'A tremendous amount of opportunity'
Frankhouse, who has announced he will resign from his position at the end of the month, said he thinks the community also will benefit from its proximity to Columbus.
Morrow County's median household income already has gone up significantly as compared to Richland and Crawford counties, he said, attributing that growth to spillover from the state's capital.
"That just continues to bring people in and push them our way, so I think there's a tremendous amount of opportunity," he said. "I think the Intel announcement is kind of what the Honda announcement was in the '80s to that area. But this one may be a little more to us."
Honda began manufacturing motorcycles in Marysville, northeast of Columbus, in 1978, according to the company's website. Automobile manufacturing followed in 1982.
While it's possible some Crawford County residents may commute to jobs at the New Albany plants, Frankhouse said he expects the economic expansion that follows Intel's investment will have a greater impact.
"You know, when Amazon put up their first warehouse over in Eaton Township, which is east of Columbus, the gentleman who helped put that deal together came and spoke to the Crawford County township trustees, I think it was my first year in this position.
"I was just talking about the collaborative nature and the need for working together, all the different entities that bring industry to an area. And soon as I had finished speaking, he stood up and said, 'I hope you guys recorded that, because that's exactly how we won in Eaton Township.' He said — and here's the weird thing — you think that Eaton Township won because we got Amazon. But he goes, 'That really isn't the win. The win is the ancillary companies that pop up around to support the big fish,' the Amazon warehouse, or the Intel manufacturing.
"But he said all of these other communities get these smaller fish that really create the sustainability, and I think that sustainability is the reach. And it's always a 45-mile radius with economic development."
The Intel factories will be built on 3,190 acres in Jersey Township that New Albany is annexing. New Albany is almost exactly 45 miles from Crawford County, as the crow flies.
"It's just a matter of the time to allow it to evolve," Frankhouse said.
ggoble@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Development leader: Intel investment will help Crawford County, too
