Group offering a new vision for development

WEIRTON - Allen Kukovich and Dan Guida believe cities such as Weirton and Steubenville need to address economic development issues with a regional perspective.

Kukovich's new appointment as executive director of the Regional Visioning Project, a group that covers 30 counties across four states, aims to do just that by providing a vision of the future for the region.

"We have got to - in this region - speak with one voice when it comes to growing our economy," Kukovich said during the Tuesday meeting of the Downtown Business and Civic Association of Weirton at the Millsop Community Center.

Counties in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland are participating in the project, including Jefferson, Belmont, Monroe and Columbiana in Ohio and Hancock, Brooke, Ohio and Marshall in West Virginia.

Initial contributors to the $2 million project include the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, Grable Foundation, Heinz Endowments, Richard K. Mellon Foundation and Pittsburgh Foundation.

Before an audience that included members of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce and Steubenville Mayor Domenick Mucci, Kukovich outlined some of his plans for the project.

"We want to have as much public participation as possible. I would like to have (a) to-do list at the end of two years," Kukovich said after he asked audience members to complete a survey describing issues they would like the project to address.

Though he knows economic development is key, Kukovich believes it is too early to discus definitive goals for the project.

"I don't want to focus on specific issues. If we focus on particular issues, people will say, 'This guy already knows what he wants to do,'" he said.

But Kukovich acknowledges the region's abundant natural resources - primarily coal and natural gas - as major assets.

"We could be an extremely powerful area in terms of energy," he said.

Guida, a member of the project's steering committee, said "regionalism is important because the economy has changed."

"We in Weirton have to learn that our area does not stop at the (Ohio) River or the Pennsylvania state line. What happens in Pittsburgh and other areas has an impact on us," he said.

Kukovich said he will spend the next several weeks speaking with community organizations throughout the region, noting he will return to the Weirton and Steubenville area.