The Athens County Economic Development Council wants to give away $15,000 in grant money, but the organization is having difficulty finding someone to take it.
The nationwide Start It Up Athens campaign was designed by the council to encourage businesses to relocate to or expand in Athens County in 2013.
The council will give away one $10,000 grant to an existing business or a new start-up in the competition, which ends on Nov. 10. Prizes totaling $5,000 in cash will also be awarded to Athens-area residents or to Ohio University students who best promote Athens through storytelling.
The council raised the prize money by seeking out private donors who specifically wanted their money to go toward efforts to bring businesses to Athens.
But competition may not be stiff, because applications haven’t been coming in steadily, said Alaina Shearer, a marketing representative for the campaign.
“Applications have picked up, but we had expected a higher response rate for this,” said Sara Marrs, director of the council. “I think that sometimes people are concerned that there’s a lot of paperwork, but we designed this so that anyone can do it. It’s an entry form and your submission.”
Between 10 and 20 applications have been submitted as of last week, Marrs said, adding that she couldn’t say how many applications have been submitted specifically for the storytelling competition.
The storytelling competition aims to change how businesses view the culture of Athens, Marrs said.
“It indirectly helps attract businesses here,” she said. “When a business chooses to locate, it looks at quality of life and a well-rounded lifestyle.”
Though she hasn’t heard of any businesses not wanting to open up shop in Athens because of bad press, Marrs said the amount of negative news about Athens might do more bad for the city than good.
“If you Google Athens, Ohio, there’s a lot for stories about Halloween and Palmer Fest,” she said. “What we want to do is show that if you Google us, there’s a lot of great stories, too.”
jj360410@ohiou.edu
