Views & Visions
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A publication of Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love LLP Spring 2008 Opportunity and Prosperity in the Mid-Ohio Valley In this issue ... Spring 2008 Thomas A. Heywood Mark Savan Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love LLP Simonton Windows Welcoming a New Wave of Growth and Development Mid-Ohio Valley Still Home to Simonton After 60 Years 26 in the Mid-Ohio Valley 3 Cecil Childress Judith W. Sjostedt Blennerhassett Hotel Parkersburg Area Community Foundation Connecting the Past to the Future 28 Consider the Possibilities 4 Dominique Holl Denny Harton Holl’s Chocolates GasSearch Corporation Culinary Changes Lead to Sweet Success 30 Oil and Gas Industry Deeply Rooted in Mid-Ohio Valley 6 Robert Kirkbride Karen L. Facemyer Ohio Valley Land Company Polymer Alliance Zone The Fertile Environment of the Mid-Ohio Valley 32 Mission Possible: Polymer Alliance Zone Seeks to Increase Jobs and Investment in West Virginia 8 Michael A. King Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital Joseph P. Chronley Pursuing Happiness in the Workplace 34 Hino Motors Manufacturing USA, Inc. Take Me Home, Country Roads, in a Hino Truck! 10 Robert L. Bays Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love LLP Keith Burdette The River, The Law and Your Lawyer: The Value of Being Licensed Parkersburg Area Roundtable in Both West Virginia and Ohio 36 Location and Workforce are Key Assets for Mid-Ohio Valley 12 Dr. Robert W. Stephens, Jr. Gerard El Chaar Bernard McDonough Foundation, Inc. Coldwater Creek Parkersburg, Doorway to the Past 38 Company Culture Values Customers, Associates and Communities 14 Roger Sheppard WTAP-TV Dr. Marie Foster Gnage Local Media Face Challenges and Opportunities 40 West Virginia University at Parkersburg The Community’s College, A Regional Advantage 16 Richard A. Hudson J. Breckenridge Martin Steven W. Nicely Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love LLP Greater Parkersburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Like Kind Exchanges: If You Can’t Beat ’em, Defer ’em! 42 Tourism: It’s Everybody’s Business 18 Richard M. Adams, Jr. United Bank, Inc. Sense of Community Drives Success 20 Dr. Jean A. Scott Marietta College Leadership for a Global Society 22 David Blair Couch Wood County Commission Transparency in Local Government: Technology is the Answer 24 Cover photo courtesy of the Parkersburg Area Roundtable. Welcoming a New Wave of Growth and Development FROM OUR in the Mid-Ohio Valley MANAGING Thomas A. Heywood PARTNER Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love llp Tom Heywood is Managing Several years ago the late Senator Martha Wehrle Today, the opportunity and value of the Mid-Ohio Partner of Bowles Rice and loaned me a copy of The Frontiersman. This work Valley are being rediscovered and leveraged once a former chief of staff to the Honorable Gaston Caperton, of historical fiction by Allan Eckart captured my again. Governor of the State of West mind and imagination as few books have, and gave Virginia. He has significant me a new appreciation of the rich heritage I enjoy For those of us in West Virginia, property experience in health care, as a native West Virginian. For this book and many along the Ohio River affords some of the corporate, finance and other acts of leadership, mentorship and friendship, most developable land we have. Ready commercial law, and is recognized as one of the I will be forever indebted to Martha. transportation and attractive sites are among the Best Lawyers in America by many competitive advantages that this region publishers Woodward & White. The Frontiersman tells the story of the first white offers. Automobile and truck manufacturers, settlers in our region – then western Virginia distribution centers, and industry and commerce Mr. Heywood is active in the – including the story of Simon Kenton, a true of all sorts are now rediscovering the competitive community and in various West pioneer who helped settle what is now Charleston, advantages offered by the Mid-Ohio Valley and Virginia business and trade associations. He serves on and who opened up the Ohio River Valley at a the greater Parkersburg area. the boards of many charitable time when Ohio was Native American homeland, organizations, including and Kentucky was shared hunting ground for the In this edition of Views & Visions, we at Bowles Vision Shared, Imagine West settlers and Native Americans. Rice are proud to share the story of the Mid-Ohio Virginia, the West Virginia Valley as we enter the 21st century. We have a Venture Connection, the West Like many Americans, I have a fairly informed Virginia Entrepreneurs Forum, large office in Parkersburg, from which we serve Discover the Real West Virginia understanding of how the West was won. clients up and down the Ohio River in Ohio Foundation, Thomas Memorial However, I had given very little thought to how and West Virginia. We participate actively in Hospital, West Virginia University the Midwest was settled and developed until the life of communities on the Ohio River, and Hospitals, the Clay Center and reading The Frontiersman. are excited to be a part of the area’s new wave of the Kanawha County Library growth and development. Foundation. In the 1700s, Fort Pitt was a western outpost in our young nation. Settlement and development I wish to thank the many authors in this edition of much of West Virginia and the Midwest of Views & Visions for sharing their insights and occurred as pioneers and settlers came down the observations about this region, talking about Ohio River and up its tributaries from what are the advantages the Ohio Valley offers them and today Pittsburgh and Wheeling. For decades, sharing their excitement and enthusiasm about Wheeling and Parkersburg became important the future. I also wish to thank each of our centers for provisioning those who explored and authors for the work they and their organizations then settled the Midwest, first by boat, and later do, day in and day out, to create a brighter future by wagon, rail and road. in the Mid-Ohio Valley. A new day is dawning up and down the river, thanks to you. The Ohio River is a remarkable engine of commerce and opportunity. From the days I hope that you enjoy this edition of Views & that Simon Kenton and a few other intrepid Visions as much as I have. We look forward to adventurers first explored the Ohio; through the working with you in the years ahead to help years of development and growth of American bring opportunity and prosperity to the area, industrial enterprise led by men like Rockefeller, continuing the tradition begun years ago by Carnegie, Mellon and others; to today’s reality Simon Kenton and many other hardy and of containerized shipping and global commerce, committed souls. the Ohio River Valley has offered incredible opportunity and advantage to those who have made it their home. Spring 2008 3 Consider the Possibilities Judith W. Sjostedt, Executive Director Parkersburg Area Community Foundation Judy Sjostedt is executive In the 1000 block of Avery Street in Parkersburg, director of “Our Community’s there are 175 steps leading up to a small park and Foundation,” the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation overlook at the top of Quincy Hill. A few years and Regional Affiliates of ago the existing stone stairs were crumbling and Doddridge, Jackson, Little treacherous to climb. I was surprised when the city Kanawha Area (Calhoun and opted to restore these steps, as I wondered at the Wirt), Mason and Ritchie time whether the expense would be worthwhile. counties. Joining the Foundation in 1999, Ms. Sjostedt leads After all, when these stairs were rebuilt, who would an organization that is use them? Since the reconstruction of the staircase, experiencing rapid growth in I’ve watched athletes test their endurance, sprinting service, tripling its assets and up and down it. I’ve seen couples climb it together regional grant-making over the and small children chase up the steps, outrunning past eight years. their parents. It’s become a badge of honor to share Ms. Sjostedt serves on the with someone that you’ve scaled it. Occasionally After years of anticipation, the new arch bridge on boards of directors of Mountain now, I, too, use those steps and gain bragging Corridor D-Route 50 appears nearly complete on State Blue Cross Blue Shield rights. and West Virginia Grantmakers the distant horizon. It’s heartening to see so many Association. She is a faculty promising signs of growth and strong evidence member of the National For those who make the climb on a blue sky of significant investments of both human and Council on Foundations’ Center morning, after catching their breath at the top, financial capital. for Community Foundation the reward is a marvelous vista of communities Excellence. on both sides of the Ohio River below. In early Climbing a long, steep stairway is an apt metaphor Her career has spanned all spring, before the trees gain their leaves, the sight is for the nature of progress in our region. While economic sectors, as she well worth the effort. Looking across Parkersburg sometimes it seems that we take two steps up and previously served as the into Belpre, one first notices a bright white church one back down, our goal remains constant and business partnerships program steeple; it pierces the sky and sets a reflective mood. resolve steadfast, that each successive generation manager for the Education From this angle, the present Mountain State Alliance; president of Key will see further and stand higher on that staircase Consultants, providing technical Blue Cross Blue Shield headquarters looms large, than where we are right now. Just as one can’t leap writing services to the chemical blocking one’s view of the flurry of construction 175 steps at once, the pace of change here has industry in West Virginia, Ohio activity on its new facility.