Grow Licking County tells Pataskala council jobs up but utility limits curb new projects

Grow Licking County executives told the Pataskala City Council on a regular meeting night that the county has exceeded several growth targets since 2018 but that utility constraints in and around Pataskala are limiting the city's ability to capture new projects. Alexis Fitzsimmons, executive director of Grow Licking County, said the nonprofit's mission is "to drive prosperity in Licking County through business attraction, retention, and workforce development." She told the council that, through the end of 2024, the organization has helped create "more than 10,000 jobs," facilitated "more than $800,000,000 in new payroll," and reported more than $50,000,000 in private investment, and said median household income rose substantially in that period. The presentation emphasized manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, retail trade and construction as the county's largest concentrated industries. Fitzsimmons said those industry concentrations informed the county's site inventory and…