Ohio Valley Looks To Stem Tide of Population Loss | News, Sports, Jobs

File Photo by Scott McCloskey
A large lunchtime crowd turned out for the 38th annual Undo’s Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival in Wheeling last July. Population decline continues to plague the area, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

WHEELING — Numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau show the populations of many counties across the Ohio Valley decreasing by the hundreds, but local leaders are looking to counter that.

According to population estimates released this month, between July 1, 2020 and the same date in 2021, Ohio County lost 488 people, going from 42,264 to 41,776 people. Marshall County went from 30,444 to 30,115, losing 329 people. Brooke and Hancock counties saw a decrease of 324 and 363 people, respectively, while Wetzel and Tyler counties saw population drops of 212 and 124, respectively.

In Ohio, Belmont County saw a decrease of 386 people, now at a population of 65,849. Jefferson County’s population fell by 318 to 64,789. Monroe and Harrison counties stayed pretty stable, falling by just 25 and 16, respectively.

Marshall County Commission President John Gruzinskas said Monday that the county’s development of tax increment financing districts along the Ohio River is aimed at attracting business and industry into Marshall County, hopefully providing a long-term fix to population loss in addition to its more immediately obvious benefits.

“We’ve established two TIF districts along the river, and that’s to attract more industry to the area,” Gruzinskas said. “We realize there’s always going to be an ebb and flow, because it’s a statewide trend, that the entire state is losing the youngest of our population.

“The industry we’re starting to see, as it relates to (oil and) gas, … the technology requires younger individuals,” Gruzinskas continued. “That’s something we’re just going to have to deal with, but we’re trying to make our area as attractive as possible to industry, because industry will draw employees, and hopefully they’ll be from out of our high schools.”

Gruzinskas added that he was glad to see local businesses partnering with West Virginia Northern Community College, which went a good way toward making the county “more attractive” to new, young talent.

Ohio County Commission President Randy Wharton agreed, saying that the commission has worked to entice local businesses to expand, particularly at The Highlands, where businesses such as Silgan Plastics, East Coast Metals and Kalkreuth Roofing had expanded their operations. These expansions, Wharton said, went a long way toward retaining local labor.

“We’ve got a very strong local presence at The Highlands,” he said. “Those were local businesses that we brought to The Highlands to retain those jobs in the area. … The commissioners have highly incentivized those businesses to remain in the area as much as we could, and we will continue to do that, especially when it relates to manufacturing and light industry.

“You get a double whammy on that – you get a boost of jobs to build them, and then you get permanent jobs, which in most cases are the higher-paying jobs,” he added. “We have always done that, and we will continue to do that.”

Wharton pointed out that many counties struggle with enticing the younger population to stay local, especially in an age where remote employment is becoming more highly sought after by younger professionals.

“It’s a shame with some of these larger companies, especially software, technical (offices), large corporations don’t realize how inexpensive it would be to have their employees working remotely from here,” he said. “… We have reliable utilities. We’re not suffering rolling blackouts, forest fires or things like that. We don’t have a high crime rate. It boils down to, where do the people leaving want to live? That’s a tough problem to deal with.”

In West Virginia, few of the 55 counties saw significant population growth. The biggest population jump was in Berkeley County, which saw an increase of 3,415 people, and was the only county to see an increase of more than a thousand people. Monongalia County reported an increase of 471 people, with other counties which grew reporting fewer than 500 additional people. Statewide, 6,839 fewer people resided within the Mountain State in 2021 compared to the previous year.

Ohio saw an estimated decrease of 10,570 residents between 2020 and 2021.