Your tax dollars are going to help open a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. The three Republicrats who sit in the Allen County commissioners office will explain that this is not corporate welfare, but what else do you call it when tax money goes to support a business?

Anyway, though reporter Lima News reporter Bart Mills didn’t point this out in his story, Dan Wilkinson – Big Daddy from his Ohio State days – also played for the Detroit Lions.  

OSU standout tied to Chuck E. Cheese in Lima

June 26, 2008 - 2:49PM

Bart Mills

LIMA - A $475,000 state grant will help clear the way for the area’s first Chuck E. Cheese. And the owner may be as well-received as the restaurant.

The Ohio Department of Development has approved a $475,000 grant to Allen Place that will be used to help purchase and redesign an Elida Road building into a Chuck E. Cheese. And among the owners of the planned pizza place is former Ohio State and Cincinnati Bengals football standout Dan Wilkinson.

A Chuck E. Cheese spokesman said Wilkinson and other investors are set to complete a deal with the chain for the Lima store. The store will probably open later this year, according to Chuck E. Cheese spokesman  John Jauquet.

So it’s Allen County Commissioner Greg Sneary’s turn. Lucky guy.

Sheriff Dan Beck has decided to get into Sneary’s fight. Enjoy the ride, Commissioner Sneary. Beck’s partners don’t fare so well.

Beck, just off a presentation to a — hate? anti-immigration? — group in Illinois is now back where he draws his salary, doing what he does at budget time: demanding the cowering commissioners give his department more money. So far, the commissioners have resisted, rejecting a contract, which was the impetus for Beck to turn his sights on Veterans Memorial Civic Center. (more…)

Unemployment numbers for April don’t come out for a couple more weeks, but here’s the good news they’ll bring: Allen County no longer has an unemployment problem. We have enough jobs to go around, all of which pay very well.

For those of you underemployed or unemployed, I apologize for the advance news, particularly when common sense says it isn’t the case. On April 26, after all, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services estimated 6.1 percent of those in Allen County looking for work didn’t have jobs. The state unemployment rate was 5.0 percent.

A sudden economic turnaround has got to be what happened, though. Otherwise, even the loud whining from a small group about a potential casino wouldn’t have kept the Allen County commissioners and members of Lima City Council from trying to kill negotiations that could employ as many as 2,500 people. (more…)

Ohioans probably should get used to the idea that this state is going to see an American Indian casino sooner or later. The public process began when the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit to reclaim land.

Like it or not, don’t be surprised when American Indian casinos arrive in Ohio. It is surprising, however, that Allen County officials appear willing to reject a potential windfall just because Lima is involved.

Because, if casinos eventually will be in Ohio, why would local officials settle for them being just down the road? Couldn’t this community use the revenue, the jobs, the visitors?

Lima officials are trying to bring a casino to town. Ignore for just a moment that it is a casino. It would be a $300 million to $400 million investment, thousands of jobs, a hotel, and shopping and entertainment options that would make this area a regional superhub while also drawing people from a much larger area.

County officials normally would be falling over themselves to bring such a development.

The commissioners might have the chance to sell a good chunk of land bought specifically to sell to businesses — at the price the commissioners want — but they appear willing to balk. (more…)