Officials feel area population decline will reverse

Area leaders and economic development specialists remain confident the population decline in the Steubenville-Weirton area will reverse with additional businesses and industry coming to the region.

Pat Ford, Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle executive director, disagreed with the representation of the latest census data showing the Weirton-Steubenville Metropolitan Statistical Area had the sixth highest population decline in the country since 2010.

Census date showed the Weirton-Steubenville area had a 4.9 percent population decline since 2010 -- from 124,326 to 118,250. Of this, 2,086 was due to migration from the area, and the largest single-year drop was a decline of 1,379 between 2015 and 2016.

Ford said it isn’t a population decline but rather a “rightsizing” of the three-county area comprising Brooke, Hancock and Jefferson counties.

He said factories around the world once employed 10,000 workers. Now those factories only require a couple hundred employees. He said Weirton Steel and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel employed thousands of workers, making and selling steel products.

“Today our niche is value-added steel, not making steel,” he said.

The “boutique industries” today of cutting, forming, rolling and treating steel don’t require the workforce of yesterday’s steelmakers.

Ford said employment numbers continue to grow in the three-county region, saying 3,500 jobs were added in the last five years. He said the population numbers don’t reflect that because workers are traveling an hour or more to get to work here. He said that can be attributed to a deteriorating housing stock.

He said a license-plate check at local businesses supports his point.

“We are trying to curb the (population) decline and push it back up. We are trying to build a housing stock which attracts people to move here for the low taxes and great quality of life,” he said.

Ford said he is working with real estate agents and house builders to get a better housing stock for workers employed here but living outside the area.

“You can still buy an affordable house in Weirton for $120,000. Houses are getting purchased and repurposed,” he said.

He said the unemployment rate was 13.7 percent in 2010, compared to a rate under 6 percent now. He said the area had the highest percentage of new construction jobs across the country in the last five years.

Ford said there has been been $515 million invested in business and industry in Brooke and Hancock counties since 2010. He said, for the three-county region, $1.2 billion has been invested in the same time period.

“Jobs have to come first. We need to work collectively on both sides of the river to make it attractive for investment. The (census) study doesn’t tell the whole story. We are not a dying community. We are a building community. We are a rightsizing community,” Ford said.

Steubenville Mayor Jerry Barilla said the population decline since 2010 can be attributed to the lack of employment opportunities.

“When we lost the mills and other industries, people moved where they can get employment and provide for their families,” he said.

He said the population decline had a domino effect. When people left the area, small businesses also closed. He cited the number of vacancies at the Fort Steuben Mall as an example of the lack of customer base.

Barilla still holds hope the area will return to its glory days, saying the oil and gas industry is a great opportunity to do that.

Barilla said he sees economic development movement on both sides of the river. Small businesses are opening and there is a major investment being made by Eastern Gateway Community College, Trinity Health System and the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

“We have a good community. We have great education, healthcare and are faith-based. The cost of living here is low and we are situated well,” he said.

While Weirton Mayor Harold Miller acknowledges the population decline, he thinks it will be a different story in the next couple of years.

“I think we’re reversing it,” Miller said, noting he believes in the next 18 to 24 months the area’s population will begin growing.

He noted the opening more than a year ago of Bidell Gas Compression, and the pending opening of Pietro Fiorentini in the city has brought new opportunities, explaining both companies already are reviewing expansion possibilities in Weirton.

Potential businesses also are looking closely at the Park Drive development located within the Three Springs Tax Increment Financing District, and Altair Development continues its work on American Way, bringing in business and residential prospects.

“We’re working as hard as we can on development. Things are moving at a faster pace,” Miller said. “We’re optimistic about those jobs.”

New jobs also leads to a need for residential growth, Miller said, discussing ongoing plans for a housing development on the former Pleasant Valley Country Club property, and proposals to include rental properties within the Park Drive development.

Those homes which currently are available often are picked up quickly, the mayor added.

“A ranch home only lasts 24 hours on the market in Weirton,” Miller said, explaining people are attracted to the area because of the lower cost of homes and the lower taxes compared to Pennsylvania.

Evan Scurti, Jefferson County Port Authority director, said efforts are being made to reverse the population decline.

“Our aging population is obviously a major factor in these statistics,” he said. “I really believe local leaders are currently tackling issues to stem the tide of out migration, which is the other driver of population loss in these 25 metropolitan areas. There are many new job opportunities coming online in 2019. Equally important, I hope citizens are encouraged by Jefferson County’s local governments and private investors’ efforts to modernize their communities. Aging infrastructure is being rebuilt, new tourism and commercial areas are being created, and there are impressive investments in local schools. All of this points to the (Weirton-Steubenville Metropolitan Statistical Area) not being on this list in the future as the entire county becomes an even more desirable place to live.”

As for the housing stock, Scurti said county median value for owner occupied housing units has risen from around $86,000 in the last census to nearly $89,000 today.

“All of this points to a desirable area, not one where residents are fleeing. From a purely economic standpoint, the Ohio Valley as a whole should definitely see more in-migration trends in the coming years. There are hundreds of industrial jobs being created right now in our county alone. Couple this with the forecasts for shale-related growth, and I am confident that home developers will have an excellent opportunity in front of them. We need to facilitate these new housing strategies if our county and the MSA is going to be successful in securing the expected new residents in the valley as a whole. By working on these strategies with the private sector, I’m confident we’ll be on different lists in future years,” Scurti said.

The Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area -- which contains Ohio and Marshall counties in West Virginia and Belmont County in Ohio -- placed eighth on the list of population decline, according to a report published in USA Today.

The Wheeling MSA’s population dropped 4.5 percent, from 147,901 people in 2010 to an estimated 141,254 in 2017. Of that loss, 3,761 was attributed to migration out of the area.