Sleek blue pods will be sprouting in clinics and pharmacies across Ohio by summer, giving patients convenient access to a medical appointment but requiring a do-it-yourself element as they operate stethoscopes and thermometers while talking to doctors on videoconference.

A 20-minute visit to a HealthSpot Inc. kiosk will cost about $60 and can net patients a diagnosis and a prescription right away.

CEO Steve Cashman says the Dublin business, HealthSpot can provide the long-sought pathway to easily accessed, lower-cost, more-effective health care.

CLEVELAND, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Midwest health care companies attracted $810 Million in new investments across 178 companies in 2011 according to the BioEnterprise Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report.  The total dollars attracted is up by ten percent from 2010; however it remains below the peak year of 2007.  Minnesota ($223 million), Ohio ($178 million), and Missouri ($169 million) led Midwestern states in attracting investment dollars; Minneapolis, Cleveland, and St. Louis were the leaders among Midwest regions.

“As in other regions of the country, overall health care venture activity has increased slightly but remains below historical highs,” said Baiju R. Shah, President & CEO of BioEnterprise, the Cleveland-based biomedical venture developer. 

By sector, the 2011 equity funding was allocated as follows:

•Medical device companies:  $295 million (36%)
•Health care IT and service companies: $259 million (32%)
•Biopharmaceutical companies: $251 million (31%)
“While medical devices continues to be the Midwest’s strongest sector, investors have shown an unusually high level of investment interest in Health IT opportunities.  Venture investors are drawn by both providers and payers searching for health IT applications that can improve effectiveness and efficiency of their enterprises,” said Shah.  “At the same time, Midwest biotechs are suffering from the national venture industry’s shift away from early-stage biotech investing.”

The Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report includes all reported numbers and regionally collected data. For complete state and region results across the Midwest, see the attached table. To view additional data about Midwest health care business activity visit www.bioenterprise.com/Reports/.

 Table:  Midwest Health Care Venture Investment (By State)

Table:  Midwest Health Care Venture Investment (By Region)**

* Border MSAs such as Kansas City and Cincinnati include deals from both states in those geographies; deals are aggregated into state totals based on the MSA’s principal state

**Regions’ totals do not equal states as not all areas are included in list of regions

Sources: Compiled by BioEnterprise team from Venture Wire, Private Equity Week, Wall Street Journal, Venture Source, SEC Filings, company press releases, www.biospace.com, and Midwest bioscience organizations and institutions.

Timken High School welding instructor Richard Thomas theorizes the current dearth of trained/certified welders can be traced to the advent of the computer.

“That started 20 years ago when computers took over, and people were saying, ‘Oh, you need to go to college and get into computers. You don’t want to weld. It’s hard work.’ And they started shying away from it,” he said.

“Maybe there is not a lot of excitement; maybe that’s what some think. But when you look at welders, they get paid hospitalization, paid holidays, paid vacations — the full benefits package.”

Whatever the reason, welders are in great demand here, and the shortage is glaring. To be succinct, any time there is the need to adhere metal to metal, a welder is the professional for the job.

“I have industry people calling me because I’m a CWE (certified welding educator). A lady called me the other day and said she needed 40 welders, and I told her, ‘Good luck.’ With East Manufacturing (in Randolph) and MAC (trailer manufacturing) in Alliance, there’s a demand for hundreds of welders in a 50-mile radius, and we haven’t really had much contact yet with the oil-field people.”

Technical schools are answering the call, exposing more students to welding and its employment opportunities.

At R.G. Drage Career Technical Center, Scott Burdge has spent 22 years teaching welding skills. Seeing former students progress in their careers, he said, is especially satisfying.

“My placement of jobs this year has been phenomenal,” said Burdge, who has 50 juniors and seniors in the program this year. “I already have seven students employed in an early placement program. Kids are starting between $10 and $15 an hour with full benefits, but they’ll move up to whatever the union rate is.”

Burdge, himself a 1980 Drage graduate, said his students will be ready to fill job openings for oil and gas drilling ventures here.

“People are really starting to see that you need a trade,” he said.

STARK STATE AMPING UP

Some 65 welding students are enrolled in Stark State College’s one-year welding certificate program. The classes prepare them to take the American Welding Society certification test.

“It’s doubled easily. So have the number of jobs,” said Donald Ball, dean of engineering, industrial and emerging technologies at the school. “Everyone from Timken to Marathon Petroleum to the oil and gas industry, they’re all looking for qualified welders.”

Ball said the program is a melange of demographics.

“Women, minorities, senior citizens and individuals right out of high school,” he said. “You might be surprised. A lot of the time, senior citizens are coming in order to get a part-time job or to become a welding inspector. If you can strike an arc and weld something, now there’s a skill.”

Ball fields frequent employer requests and regularly places students in their first welding jobs.

The demand for trained welders has increased so much that plans are being made to create a new Stark State welding technology lab either on the Jackson Township campus or a satellite campus in Barberton.

“We could serve more people and offer more equipment,” he explained. “I’d like to grow it into a material testing center as well as an automation and robotic center.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts welding will continue to be a secure vocation, pointing to many regions reporting shortages.

Because basic welding skills are the same across industries, the Bureau’s job forecast indicated, “Welders can easily shift from one industry to another, depending on where they are needed most. For example, welders laid off in the automotive manufacturing industry may be able to find work in the oil and gas industry.”

When Manny Reynolds left his job as a welder in commercial construction in California to return home to Ohio, there was little worry about securing employment.

“I rode out the boom in California, and I’m glad to be home,” said the 37-year-old Carroll County resident. “With the oil and gas boom here, I can pick and choose who I want to work for. That’s the thing about having a trade. You can take it with you.”

While many manufacturers have eliminated jobs through automation, welders remain critical to many processes. Even those manufacturers who have transitioned to welding machines for many jobs, those machines still require skilled welders to operate and adjust them and to inspect completed welds.

“The American Welding Society says that the average age of a welder is between 56 and 57. They’re retiring. The hardest part is putting the word out,” Thomas said. “Telling students it’s a good field where they’ll be making good money.”

WASHINGTON – Mission Essential Personnel, LLC (MEP) sponsored the National Council on US-Arab Relations’ (NCUSAR) “Afternoon Tea and a Conversation with Mrs. Cherie Blair” yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The event was attended by representatives from government, academia, non-profit groups, industry, and several foreign nations, including the ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Libya, and Tunisia.

Mrs. Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, led a discussion on women and human rights issues relating to the Middle East and Africa, discussing among other things the importance of women’s access to education and capital for starting businesses.

“Bridging cultures is both the hallmark of MEP and the National Council,” said Chris Taylor, MEP CEO. “We are honored to have contributed to this discussion and hope that it will help strengthen the relationship between the United States and its Arab partners, friends, and allies.”

“The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations was delighted to join with MEP to host a public affairs event with Cherie Blair,” said Council President and CEO Dr. John Duke Anthony. “Seldom do members of the diplomatic and press corps, academe, and the corporate community in the nation’s capital have an opportunity to exchange views on the pressing issues of women’s rights with someone as knowledgeable as Mrs. Blair. Rarer still are the opportunities to do so  with someone having her extensive firsthand familiarity with gender-related issues in Africa, the Arab countries, the Middle East, and the Islamic world, combined with her career as a practicing lawyer and wife of former British Prime Minister and current Middle East Peace Envoy Tony Blair.”

By Carol Biliczky, Beacon Journal

Para Jones will tread on very familiar ground come Feb. 6. She will return to an employer for whom she has worked for 22 years – but this time as president.

Jones said she is delighted to become the fourth president of the tax-supported Stark State College.

“To say that I have goals would be presumptuous,” said Jones, 56. “I do know what’s most important to us – access, affordability and, increasingly, accountability.”

Stark State hired Jones away from Spartanburg Community College, near Greenville, S.C., where she has been president for two years. But Ohio apparently was never far from her mind.

She was a finalist in 2010 for the presidency at Owens Community College near Toledo. That didn’t happen, so she applied to Stark State when John O’Donnell quit to accept a similar post at MassBay Community College in Wellesley Hills, Mass.

Stark State trustee chairman Dr. Michael L. Thomas said the search committee whittled the applicants from 35 to four and then to Jones, Stark State provost Dorey Diab and Quintin Bullock, president of Schenectady County Community College in Schenectady, N.Y.

Thomas won’t confirm written reports that trustees were divided over the selection of the president. “All three had avid supporters,” is all Thomas would say.

Jones emerged the victor because she had “the necessary charisma,” he said. “Her intellect and philosophy are aligned with the community and the school.”

Outside experience

Jones also comes to Stark State’s top job with more outside experience than many in higher education.

After graduating from the University of Mount Union, she edited books and manuals for flight simulators at Goodyear Aerospace, then went on to public relations and marketing posts at the city of Canton and Roadway. She spent a semester in journalism school before deciding that wasn’t for her.

Her interest in higher education administration was piqued when she joined Stark State in 1987 as head of public relations.

She earned an M.B.A. from Ashland University in 1994 and a doctorate from the University of Nebraska in 2008, the latter while vice president for advancement, planning, college and community relations at Stark State.

Along the way, she raised twin sons who are now 26, wedging study into the early morning hours before she went to work.

Expanding institution

She will rejoin an institution that’s been successful in many ways.

A surge of students propelled college enrollment to more than 15,500 last fall — an 82 percent increase since 2007 and the fastest rate of growth among Ohio’s two-year colleges.

As enrollment has grown, so has the number of students graduating with certificates and associate degrees – from 582 in 2001 to 1,084 in 2010, an 86 percent increase, according to the Ohio Board of Regents.

Stark State has kept a lid on tuition, which at $4,215 a year is less than half that of the University of Akron ($9,500) or Kent State’s main campus ($9,300).

Jones will oversee the largest college in Stark County — 73 acres in Jackson Township plus seven satellite locations. The college employs 428 full-time faculty and staff and hundreds of part-timers on a $70 million operating budget.

Fair offer

At the same time, though, Jones will not make as much as her predecessor or colleagues at other two-year institutions.

Her three-year contract calls for a salary of $225,000 a year plus standard Stark State benefits, while O’Donnell, her predecessor, made $284,000 plus fringes such as allowances for housing and personal travel and a $50,000 performance bonus in 2010.

In contrast, Cuyahoga Community College’s Jerry Sue Thornton makes $259,000 plus $44,000 for housing and $25,000 each for longevity and performance. And Roy Church, president of Lorain County Community College, made $256,500 plus a $76,000 longevity supplement in 2010, six weeks of vacation and up to four weeks of sabbatical leave yearly.

Thomas, the Stark State trustee chairman, said Jones is being paid “appropriately to her level of experience. We’re trying to be cost conscious with the taxpayers’ money.”

Jones implied that money is not her goal.

“The trustees made me an offer and I thought it was fair,” she said.

Now, she’ll return to the Tudor home in Jackson Township that she shares with her husband, Greg, who is the general manager of an industrial and commercial roofing company.

He stayed in Ohio to try to sell their home when she moved to Spartanburg.

Jones may be able to pursue her hobbies — reading and gardening — after she settles in. But she said she will spend the first three months conducting listening sessions with students, community leaders, employees and others.

Then she said she will come up with a plan.

The ultimate goal will be to help students to find employment and “earn a good, solid living. That’s what we’re about,” she said.

CANTON — Companies seeking the potential of the Utica shale drilled only one well in Stark County during 2011, but they lined up thousands of acres for future development.

Employees of Stark County Recorder Rick Campbell filed 4,563 oil and gas leases during 2011, more than four times the number processed during 2010.

“We’ve never been this busy before,” Campbell said of the leases filed last year.

Even with the increased filings during 2010, the surge in new leases filed during 2011 was surprising, he said. “We’re keeping up, but it’s a lot of work.”

Chesapeake Exploration — a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy — led the pack with 3,771 leases filed. That’s a jump compared to 2010 when Chesapeake and business partner Ohio Buckeye filed 653 leases. (Ohio Buckeye filed 40 leases in 2011.)

Chesapeake’s filings in 2011 — including 1,046 leases filed Dec. 5 — accounted for nearly 83 percent of leases filed. Chesapeake has a stake in 78 percent of the oil and gas leases filed in Stark County since the Utica shale boom began.

Interestingly, the firm that finished a distant second to Chesapeake, with 246 lease filings during 2011, hasn’t gotten involved in Utica shale drilling. Ohio Valley Land & Exploration, based in Youngstown, drills conventional wells in northeast Ohio.

NEW OIL BOOM

Oil and gas leases give companies permission to access underground natural resources. Most deals give landowners a one-time signing bonus and a percentage of royalties. When the shale boom began during 2010, landowners were averaging between $1,000 and $1,500 per acre, but that price since has topped $5,000 per acre in some areas.

Companies are using horizontal drilling to reach and penetrate shale rock formations, and hydraulic fracturing to break the rock and release oil and gas. But hydraulic fracturing has been controversial because it requires forcing up to 5 million gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the well.

Chesapeake has been working more than two years to develop the Utica shale formation in eastern Ohio. Reports are the company has invested $2 billion to lease more than 1.5 million acres.

The company is confident oil and natural gas liquids will be found in the Utica formation, which is a band of rock up to 300 feet thick and about 6,000 feet below the surface. Natural gas liquids — also called wet gas — are considered valuable because they contain butane, propane and ethane.

PLENTY OF PARTNERS

During 2010 Chesapeake teamed with EnerVest, a Houston-based company with offices north of Hartville, in a joint venture to develop Utica shale holdings in Ohio. EnerVest got into the Ohio oil fields before the shale boom when it bought the holdings of Range Resources and Belden & Blake.

In addition to working with EnerVest, Chesapeake has teamed with Total S.A., a French company. Total will spend $2.32 billion — with $2.03 billion going to Chesapeake and $290 million to EnerVest — for a 25-percent stake in Chesapeake’s holdings in 10 Ohio counties, including Stark.

When Chesapeake announced it had reached and agreement with Total, Aubrey K. McClendon, chief executive officer, called the Utica shale “a world-class asset with world-class returns.” Chesapeake has said it might drill up to 12,000 wells in Ohio and it has projected returns of $20 billion.

LEADING DRILLER

Through the end of December, Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources had registered 159 Utica shale drilling permits, and Chesapeake had its name on 111 of the permits.

So far, the company has drilled a well in Osnaburg Township and started work at sites in Washington and Bethlehem townships. The company opened offices in Canton last summer.

Chesapeake has 41 permits for wells in Carroll County. Last year, it touted production from a Carroll well as a sign of future success.

Keith Fuller, director for corporate development, said the Utica shale is part of Chesapeake’s efforts nationwide to increase oil and wet gas production.

“The oil and natural gas liquids produced in this area have an advantage in the market over dry natural gas due to higher prices,” Fuller said.

Chesapeake is pursuing more leases in Ohio. In November, McClendon told investors the company believes more oil will be found in the Utica shale’s western end. The projected break between oil and wet gas discoveries splits Stark County.

MORE TO COME?

Other large U.S. oil and gas companies — Anadarko Petroleum, Devon Energy Corp. and CNX Gas among them — also have targeted the Utica shale for development, according to ODNR permit records.

County recorder officers around the state have seen oil and gas lease filings increase, Stark County’s Campbell said. Offices in smaller counties have been bombarded, he said, and forced to create space for oil industry employees who are scouring lease records.

Over the past 10 years, Campbell has increased use of computers in the Stark Recorder’s office. Information is easier to access. and it can be done from other states. Down the road. he plans more advancements, including setting up a PayPal account to allow for online payments of filing fees.

Campbell said there are days when 10 to 15 people from oil companies visit the office to review records. “I guess it’s nice that we don’t have 100,” he said.

by Mark Williams, The Columbus Dispatch

It isn’t just environmentally sound to save energy. It also makes sense financially.

To help finance the projects needed to reduce energy consumption and costs, manufacturers, small businesses, nonprofit groups and government agencies have access to a new source of low-interest loans.

The Ohio Department of Development has started the Energy Loan Fund that can lend money for projects such as installation of insulation, new lighting, more-efficient heating and cooling systems, renewable-energy projects and improved production processes that could cut energy consumption.

“The cheapest kilowatt is one we don’t use,” said Christina O’Keefe, assistant deputy chief of the department’s Office of Energy.

The program is another option in the state’s package of tools to help businesses create and retain jobs and lower the state’s 8.5 percent unemployment rate.

In theory, the fewer dollars that manufacturers and small businesses spend on energy costs, the more they can spend on investments that can help their businesses grow. That can allow them to retain or increase jobs.

“In the manufacturing sector, there is a lot of opportunity for energy efficiency,” O’Keefe said.

The program will use more than $7 million in state funding from the Advanced Energy Fund that came from a utility-bill fee that expired last year.

The state also will tap federal funds from the State Energy Program.

The goal is for loan repayments to replenish the fund for future loans. Borrowers will benefit from loans that come with low interest rates.

To be eligible, projects must reduce energy use by 15 percent, achieve economic benefits and improve environmental quality.

The department has established an online tool to help applicants determine whether they might be eligible and complete a pre-application program. Those applications will be evaluated to determine eligibility.

O’Keefe said the savings on energy costs should be substantial enough to help borrowers make a big dent in loan payments.

Utility bills can be a significant cost for some manufacturers and other small businesses, said Chris Ferruso, legislative director of the Ohio chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Such investments in ways to reduce costs can free up capital that a business could use to fund expansion, leading to job creation, Ferruso said.

“You just hope it’s significant enough to allow all those who want to take advantage to do so,” he said.

Ferruso credits the state for trying to come up with new ways to help businesses.

“The state is looking at different avenues to certainly try to find jobs to jump-start Ohio.”

Chesapeake Energy and American Electric Power are working together on a pipeline expansion that would connect Ohio’s Utica and Marcellus shale gas resources to markets in the East and South.

The companies, joined by Spectra Energy Corp., are calling the project the Ohio Pipeline Energy Network, or OPEN. They will build 70 miles of pipeline to connect Ohio resources to Spectra’s Texas Eastern pipeline system, which runs from Texas to New York. The estimated cost is $500 million, according to Spectra.

“It’s an issue of building infrastructure, and infrastructure needs to be built to manage these wells,” said Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

Stewart described this as a “chicken and egg” situation, in which investment in a pipeline can lead to investment in gas wells and processing, and vice versa.

Chesapeake, based in Oklahoma City, is the largest leaseholder in Ohio’s Utica shale. AEP, based in Columbus, is one of the largest electric utilities in the country and an operator of several gas-fired power plants.

“It’s a huge investment in Ohio and another encouraging sign that energy and natural gas will have a massive impact on our state’s economy in the near future,” said Rob Nichols, spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

While significant for Ohio, such announcements are not unusual during the recent boom in North American energy production, said Brian Milne, refined-fuels editor for Telvent DTN, a market-research company.

“For a while there, you couldn’t go a week without someone announcing a pipeline,” he said.

The Texas Eastern pipeline already goes through Ohio from east to west. This new addition will create a connection between the pipeline and the northeastern Ohio counties that are expected to have the most shale-gas resources, though the specific path is still being determined, said Wendy Olson, spokeswoman for Houston-based Spectra.

“It will likely originate in Carroll County and head south,” she said. “That could take any number of routes” to reach the existing pipeline.

Work on the project will begin next year, with a goal of completion by late 2014.

The Stark State College Board of Trustees unanimously named Dr. Para M. Jones the fourth president in the College’s 51-year history at a special Board meeting today. Jones, president of Spartanburg Community College in Spartanburg, SC, will take the helm as Stark State president Feb. 6, 2012. She succeeds John O’Donnell, who left the college in July to assume the presidency of MassBay Community College in Massachusetts.

Jones, 56, was selected by the board after an extensive nationwide search and interview process conducted by the Board of Trustees, administration, foundation board members and community stakeholders and a search committee comprised of college and community representatives. Faculty, staff, students and community leaders participated in open forums with the finalists and provided input to the board. The process culminated with visits to the campuses of the three presidential finalists.

“I am delighted that Dr. Jones is the choice of our Board to lead the College into the next decade,” said Stark State Board Chair Michael L. Thomas, DDS. “Her leadership, intellect, character and charisma will continue to position Stark State College as a first choice in higher education and a leader in economic growth and community prosperity. Dr. Jones is a perfect fit for our Board, our College and our community, and we welcome her back.”

With more than 24 years of experience and leadership in student access and success, accreditation, strategic and operational planning and execution, institutional research and continuous improvement, Jones has created effective education, business and community partnerships and is deeply committed to the community college mission, diversity and inclusiveness.

“I am so pleased to have this opportunity to return to Stark State and Northeast Ohio, where I spent so much of my professional career and have been deeply rooted in the community,” said Jones. “I appreciate the Board’s confidence, and I look forward to continuing the College’s steadfast commitment to student access, student success and economic development.”

Jones spent 22 years at Stark State prior to becoming president of Spartanburg Community College. At Stark State, she was vice president for advancement, planning, college and community relations from 2005 – 2009. She developed and led the College’s first strategic plan involving extensive stakeholder input from more than 700 faculty, staff, students, alumni, business and community leaders. She also was executive director of the Stark State College Foundation.  Jones led grant and private fundraising efforts that attracted more than $50 million in federal, state, local, public and private funding to support students, academic programs and operations.

She leveraged private and public partnerships to secure building funds and equipment for the Health Sciences Building, W.R. Timken Center for Information Technology, Ralph Regula Wellness and Therapy Center, Automotive Technology Center, Silk Auditorium, Dental Hygiene Clinic and the Advanced Technology Center.

During her tenure at Stark State, she also served as vice president for advancement and student services, executive assistant to the president and director of marketing and communications. Committed to student access and success, Jones led many efforts in the community to provide scholarship opportunities for Stark State students. She was instrumental in the College’s tremendous enrollment growth and the name change from Stark Technical College to Stark State College.

Jones holds a PhD in Higher Education Leadership from the University of Nebraska; an MBA with honors from Ashland University, where she is a member of the Academic Hall of Fame; and a BA from the University of Mount Union, where she graduated magna cum laude with majors in English, communications and Spanish. She is a member of Delta Mu Delta National Honor Society for Business.

A native of Stark County, Jones is a past president of the Jackson-Belden Chamber of Commerce and the Northeast Ohio Naval Academy Parents club. She served on the boards of the David YMCA, Canton Joint Engineering Council, Canton Museum of Art Board and CYC Recreation Center Board.

Jones and her husband Greg reside in Jackson Township. They are the parents of two adult sons.

Stark State College is a two-year state college offering more than 230 associate degree, options, one-year certificates and career enhancement certificates. The College, located in Jackson Township, has an enrollment of 15,551 credit students and approximately 2500 non-credit students. The College is the eighth largest employer in Stark County.

Philips confirmed Tuesday that it will consolidate its nuclear medicine division in Highland Heights, where the multinational company has 1,200 employees.

The project will bring 100 jobs here from San Jose, Calif., at an average salary of $115,000.

Philips considered moving that work, on research and development for medical imaging, to Israel, the Netherlands, China or Russia.

Steris Corp., based in Mentor, will move roughly 25 workers here from a call center in Mississauga, Canada. And the company plans to build a fabrication plant for medical-device parts inside an existing distribution center off Heisley Road.

The facility will create 75 manufacturing and engineering jobs – positions that could have landed in Alabama or Mexico, executives said.

Gov. John Kasich visited both companies Tuesday, to tout deals that won state and local money.

“This is just a gangbuster day,” Kasich told a crowd of workers at Philips’s nearly 1-million-square-foot complex.

The company moved its nuclear medicine headquarters from California to Northeast Ohio in 2006. But research and development for one type of scanning technology, used to diagnose and monitor heart problems and brain and bone disorders, stayed in San Jose.

Collaborations with major hospitals and universities, local suppliers and a concentration of medical-imaging businesses in Northeast Ohio made this region a logical place to expand, said Jay Mazelsky, the company’s senior vice president and general manager for computed tomography and nuclear medicine.

“This sends a signal that Ohio, and Northeast Ohio, is a great biomedical business environment,” said Baiju Shah, chief executive officer of BioEnterprise, a nonprofit focused on the region’s biomedical economy.

Philips will invest $3.5 million in facility renovations and equipment and add $11.5 million in annual payroll. In exchange, the company could receive $11 million in incentives, including a $2.3 million state job-creation tax credit, a $5 million grant from the state’s technology-focused Third Frontier program, a $3 million Cuyahoga County loan and $500,000 from the state-supported Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center in Cleveland.

Medical equipment maker Steris, which employs roughly 1,000 people in Mentor, will spend $8 million on its parts-production facility.

“It was clear to us that Ohio continues to be a manufacturing leader and a great place to make products,” Walt Rosebrough, the company’s president and chief executive, said during a news conference Tuesday.

Making parts here will give Steris new opportunities to work with local suppliers, channeling “several million dollars” to other companies, a spokesman said.

State and local officials offered the company $8 million, but Steris isn’t likely to take a $4 million state loan for building renovations and equipment. Instead, the company plans to secure financing from regional lenders, spokesman Stephen Norton said.

That leaves just under $3.6 million in state grants, tax credits and loans focused on economic development and job-creation.

Workforce development officials in Cuyahoga and Lake counties have offered the company help with worker training, through a deal arranged with assistance from the Greater Cleveland Partnership. And Mentor city officials are considering a payroll-tax reduction for the company. Several parts of the deal aren’t finalized.