NILES — Gov. Mike Dewine and J.P. Nauseef, president / CEO of JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development corporation, plan to make an announcement today in Niles regarding economic development in the Mahoning Valley, according to a news release.

The release does not state the nature of the announcement, set for around 2:30 p.m. at the Eastwood Event Centre, but there have been discussions this year around a proposal to create an economic development district specific to Trumbull, Mahoning, Ashtabula and Columbiana counties.

The proposal, which DeWine has said he supported, would focus on job creation and business growth in the lake-to-river region by allowing the four counties to be an economic development region under JobsOhio.

The four counties at the moment are part of the 18-county Cleveland region with Cleveland-based Team NEO as JobsOhio’s network partner.

“The idea, the proposal from the leadership in the Mahoning Valley would be to create a seventh” district of the four counties, DeWine said during an interview in January with Ohio newspaper editors from Ogden Newspapers. “I have told the leadership in the Valley that if they can figure this out from a dollars-and-cents point of view that I’m in favor of it. I prefer a local leadership on this. There’s some good arguments for being able to do that. We hope that will get done.”

According to documents with the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, the Lake to River Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, was formed Oct. 2, 2023.

The articles of incorporation state the foundation would enable the four counties “to meet economic development goals by maintaining focus and sustained effort toward strategic initiatives, prioritizing and allocating resources, and enforcing accountability, for the purpose of improving the prosperity of the region.”

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