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Strickland, GOP help tout Third Frontier

$700M Ohio project to create tech jobs on ballot

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland talks with employees of Applied Sciences Inc. and local officials as he tours the Cedarville facility Friday, April 30. Staff photos by Bill Lackey

Bill Lackey Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland talks with employees of Applied Sciences Inc. and local officials as he tours the Cedarville facility Friday, April 30. Staff photos by Bill Lackey

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Bill Lackey Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland talks to Max Lake, the president of Applied Sciences Inc., as he tours the company's Cedarville facility.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Bridgette Outten, Staff Writer Updated 1:44 PM Saturday, May 1, 2010

CEDARVILLE — The bipartisan display of legislative support for the Third Frontier program was evident Friday, April 30, as Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and Republican State Sen. Chris Widener promoted the issue.

The Third Frontier, a $700 million commitment to expand technology and create high-paying jobs in Ohio, will be on the ballot May 4 as Issue 1.

Strickland and Widener toured Applied Sciences Inc., a company that has benefited from Third Frontier funding and has several employees from area schools, including Cedarville University and Wright State University.

Applied Sciences is a research and development company that also has a manufacturing unit, Pyrograf Products Inc., that is the world’s third-largest producer of carbon nanofibers.

Strickland said touring the company — and others like it over the past few weeks — has showed him the importance of the Third Frontier program.

“Every business that I know of has supported it, organized labor is supporting it, the academic community, I think, without exception is supporting it,” Strickland said. “I have rarely seen anything where so many people from so many divergent points of view can come together in support of something.”

Widener agreed. However, the politicians are concerned that the one hurdle that may be facing Third Frontier is that Ohioans may not understand what it does.

“I’ve read the ballot language,” Widener said. “It’s long, it’s confusing and if it just said, ‘Renew jobs in Ohio, renew Ohio jobs program’ or something like that, everybody would vote yes.”

Applied Research President Max Lake said Third Frontier is critical to capitalize on the inventions developed in Ohio.

“It finances these inventions and asserts them into the mainstream economy,” Lake said.

Yellow Springs resident Don Hollister was awed that Third Frontier would mean new factory jobs in the area.

“I’m certainly going to vote for it,” he said.

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