Tri-Towns Bureau

SIDNEY — Two large Sidney employers told a group of area business and political leaders Monday about the opportunities of doing business in Delaware County and what they need to be successful.

More than 50 people attended the Delaware County Economic Summit held at the MeadWestvaco plant. It was sponsored by the Sidney Chamber of Commerce and the Delaware County Department of Economic Development.

Business officials and political leaders agreed an Empire Zone in Delaware County would help companies and the local economy.

Although their businesses are different, Brian Hutzley of MeadWestvaco and Gary Anderson of Amphenol Corp. told the audience a similar story. Both companies plan to maintain a strong presence in Sidney, they said, but to remain competitive, government must continue to lend a hand.

Amphenol makes connectors that bring wires together in such products as commercial and military aircraft. Industrial, automotive and telecommunications sectors also use the product.

"We are not expecting to get a whole lot of breaks out of the economy," said Anderson, general manager at Amphenol. The company is dealing with a decline in sales that began in 2001.

But with the increased pressures of globalization and the tight economy, Anderson said, the company needs help with energy costs, taxes and health-care costs to stay competitive.

Hutzley, the finance director at MeadWestvaco, said globalization has forced the company to import more of its products. The slowdown that prompted closures of such large customers as Ames Department Store and pushed Kmart Corp. into bankruptcy has caused a decline in shipments from MeadWestvaco, he said.

This has forced MeadWestvaco, which produces calendars and other time-related items, to look more closely at reducing costs at its facilities around the country, he said. The company needs help with taxes, medical costs and Workers' Compensation from the state to keep Sidney a competitive option for the company's growth.

The need for assistance became apparent last year, Anderson said, when Amphenol had a 13 percent increase in electricity charges. The increase of $300,000 was equal to about 10 jobs, he said.

An Empire Zone, an economic development area the state Legislature is trying to bring to Delaware County, would help meet these needs, both business officials and political leaders at the meeting said.

Many other counties already have the areas.

In answering audience questions, state Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, said the state has learned from the past slowdown in 1989 that it can't tax its way out of its current fiscal problems. Instead, the state will look at alternatives including sales of assets, borrowing and using money from the tobacco settlement to close its shortfall.

At the same time, the state realizes it must promote business if the economy is to revive, he said.

"We want to retain and attract new jobs" with the program, he said. Bonacic said he has received enough support that the effort should succeed.

"We must do more and we will do more," he said.

Matt Klafehn, an aide to Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, said after the meeting that the Bainbridge Republican will also work to bring an Empire Zone to the county.

Crouch is currently talking with a Canadian plastics firm about moving to the county, Klafehn said. But before it will consider the move, he said, it wants to see tax credits that will be available from the zone program.