Southern Perry Incubation Center for Entrepreneurs

Heading north from Athens I passed through Gloucester. Storefronts were boarded up, and a hand-written sign in the window of the community center said "free bread." There are few franchises in this area, so instead of Big-O Tires you have Wild Bill's Tire Barn and Dueces Wild Welding. There was a fondness for lawn displays of large braided baskets and geese, each molded from concrete. A few miles to the north I found the old bank building in Corning where I was to meet Lil Winnenberg from the SPICE team and her son John and his colleague Sandy Landis from Shawnee Associates. Lill led me up the flight of stairs down a hall past some neat offices and displays about the benefits of business incubation centers. Lill's father had worked for the New York Central when there was a switching station in Corning. Where there is one track, there used to be seven. Railroad jobs were good ones, and people came to the town for the work. Lill had a pass she used to go shopping in Athens and to college in Columbus. Now, decades later, Corning is less than 600 people, and there are few jobs. Before the Kellogg project began there was definitely an interest in business and attracting new ones. About thirty people from Corning were interested in starting their own business. On her mother's hundredth birthday they had a brainstorm session and decided to work on starting a medical transcription center and then later, a business incubator. June Holley at ACENet was a big help as their ideas took shape

Elaine Higgins was one of the MIRA team who had been trying to get a job at a data processing plant in nearby Worthington. A company officer came to Corning for a visit and was impressed enough to locate a branch office there which opened up some new jobs. Currently they have been working with a communications expert at Ohio University in order to install a satellite connection. They joked, "We are the most god-forsaken place in the U.S." However, the center they had set up seemed complete. The display of materials for the visitor needing help included pamphlets from various agencies and a chart showing all the factors to consider before starting a business. Lill commented that some people don't go past the initial phase once they realize the complexity of the process.