The Richland County Board of Commissioners voted to authorize an addendum to the county's economic development contract with the Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development that includes a one-time payment of $10,000 to help build a standalone economic-development website.

The chamber's CEO and president, Ellen Hines, told commissioners the new site would be "specifically aimed at fostering economic development," allow targeted search-engine optimization and site navigation for site selectors, and would be funded collaboratively with contributions from DRM Productions, the City of Ontario and the City of Mansfield. "We actually are coming with a collaborative request for only $10,000," Hines said.

County Administrator Andrew Keller told commissioners the county would implement the payment by drafting an addendum to the existing economic development contract under the Ohio Revised Code; he described the proposed step as similar to prior supplemental funding actions the board had taken for the chamber.

Supporters said a separate site would help position Richland County in searches that now sometimes return similarly named jurisdictions and would allow more direct promotion of port authority resources and other local economic tools. John Pierce of DRM Productions described design and maintenance support the company would provide as part of the collaborative effort.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the addendum. The board recorded the action as an add-on to the county's existing contract with the chamber; no additional details on exact maintenance or hosting contracts were provided during the meeting.

The chamber presenters said Mansfield had committed to contribute but did not state the amount. The commissioners and chamber representatives said the site would be cross-linked with the chamber's main site and with participating municipal sites; further implementation steps and a timeline were not specified at the meeting.