The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 18 with Jim Milleson Pt. 2

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to Community Connections and Commerce. I'm Drake Watson along with Wendy Anderson.

As always, hey, remember we had Jim Millison on the last time. We've got him back for part two. Jim, we kind of cut you off the last time, but we've got a lot of things to talk about. And you were about to go into almost every single reason why somebody should, you know, be here in the Ohio Valley, live here, invest here, all those things. What makes the Ohio Valley great? We'll just get right into it. Well, everybody will say us about their hometown, but it's the quality of life. I wrote down a few notes. Low cost of living. Let's just start there. The average national home is $281,000.

The Ohio Valley, $148,000. Affordability is huge. Once you look at the quality of high school educations, the community colleges, the four-year colleges. We have a huge history of good private education schools. And we've got a few public schools in the area, too. Our parks, our recreation, the rivers, the lakes, the low crime rate yeah if if there's a crime in our small communities or our county the deputy sheriffs look at each other and say who who got out let's go talk to billy we just let him out last week it's probably him yeah you know is he standing at his mom's house or his aunt's house right all right that that is another reason i know families that have never, ever locked their doors. Why would we need to?

We have churches that keep their doors open. If a transient's in an area, then they come to your community. Hey, how can we help you? You know. Exactly. The natural beauty is the other. And that goes back to what we were talking about in the pioneers and how beautiful the Ohio River Valley would have looked to them.

Now it's a major artery for the entire United States, but it became an artery of what was just a country starting in the late 1700s, early 1800s. So why would you stay here? It's got a family feel. You can raise your family here. Friday nights are still one of the best nights in the Ohio Valley, a football Friday night. Absolutely, yep.

I was raised in Freeport. Lakeland High School that no longer exists became part of Harrison Central. But Lakeland, we didn't have a football team. You know, so basketball. So Tuesdays and Fridays during basketball season, you might as well, the last person left the town, turn the lights off. Everybody was at the ball game. The Leisters were big over there, weren't they?

Oh, yeah, Leister family. There are so many connections. But, you know, like Grandpap said, watch how you talk to people because you're probably related to one another. That's right. That's true. They always told me I couldn't go out with a girl from New Athens. There you go. You're related to her.

Small town. But you talk about connections. I wanted to ask you about connections. We talk connections. It's in the title. We talk about it with everybody that comes on. But we never really get to the actual meat of it. I mean, we graze the surface and we say, oh, yeah, connections are important.

That's as far as it gets. You obviously understand connections are important, but I want to ask you on a more deep level, what goes into making a connection? In other words, how do you know, you know, what meeting to go to, who to have dinner with, whose hand to shake, who you need to tell about what? I mean, what goes into all of that and kind of the, you know, the, you know, the makeup of making a connection? Well, it's a great question, but it's a quote that my kids get tired of me saying. My grandpap, Brady, A.H., always said, it's not about having a seat at the table. You've got to have the seat at the table because if you don't have that seat, you're on the menu.

You're going to be being talked about and you're not going to know what's hitting you. So we make it a point to be at every seminar, every conference. I've got a bulletin board. I actually got two of them now hanging in our office with the, what do you call the things that hang around your neck? Layers? Yeah. Yep. From over 120 separate seminars and conferences that we've attended out of state. Separate bulletin board for the in-state conferences.

Wow. You know, so we started going to the Doug East and the NAEP back in 2010. You've got to go to where the movers and shakers are, the business directors. We took a trip in 2011, and the best three days of my life as far as business. We flew into Houston, spent a half a day in Houston, flew to Dallas, flew from Dallas to Midland, and then back to Houston. We met with eight of the highest oil and gas families you can meet, sat in a boardroom with the Hunt family.

Now, the Hunt family, if you don't know who they are, back in the 70s they cornered the silver market. This is a major, major family. And so Herbert Hunt, who just passed this spring, Herbert Hunt sitting there with us, and he looks at me and says, Mellison, he said, you're going to Midland tomorrow morning? I said, yep, we're flying. And he said, I'll tell you what, that precious Harrison County of yours, he said, it's going to look like downtown Midland eventually,

but not the high rises. Look at your man camps. Look at the oil and gas wells. That's what your county is going to be. You need to get your people prepared. The Hunts had been here as early as 2004 buying mineral rights in the Ohio Valley. Wow. Eight years ahead of the play. Wow. All right? That's the history of people who understand energy and natural resources. You've got to be at the table.

You've got to make those connections. So we've been able to do that. Had the pleasure, set in 45 minutes with Aubrey McClendon, also has passed away. Aubrey was a visionary. He came to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. I can remember when he left Charleston, West Virginia, the West Virginians said, hey, this is a coal state. We don't need you gas and oil people here.

So he took his headquarters from Charleston, West Virginia, went away, went to Oklahoma. Really? Came back here and started leasing land. Million acres, before you know it. Just like we said in the last podcast, people were jumping at it because they really didn't know what their minerals were worth. But we sat down with him. We needed to talk with him. I've had that opportunity to literally

have the seat at the table. I go to some of these meetings and I am the only advocate for the lessor, the mineral owner, in the room. And I get, what the heck's he doing here? Oh, he's here again. Watch what you say, Mellison's in the room. Because we're going to take right back and educate our people what these people are planning to do. And there's an old saying in the oil and gas business, what happens today already happened in Midland, Texas two years ago. It's already planned out. You're just now hearing about it. So you've got to make those connections.

Well, yeah, because how valuable was it for you to sit with the folks that knew that the that Harrison County in the Ohio Valley, we're gonna, you know, prosper well before you know, anything actually came of it. So the hydrocarbons are in place. That's what we tell our listeners. What's what's your hurry to lease? When somebody offers you those rocks are not going anywhere. The hydrocarbons are there. Somebody's got to

extract it. Nobody can extract it without a lease. You've got the power. Organize your neighbors. Talk with your neighbors. Let's work this together. Don't fall for their BS at all. We're going to go away if you don't treat us. I can remember Belmont County, Harrison County, Monroe, dad and granddad telling the stories of the coal companies saying, well, you know, if you don't help us a little bit here, we're going to pull up stakes and move out of state and we ain't going to mine that coal. Well, bullpucky. But we fell for it. Back to the word we used earlier, gullible. You know, we trust people. So let's go back to the basics. Now, Wendy, you had mentioned off-air about society and things. My mom, 88 years old, still works every day at our real estate brokerage, was raised in the Church of Christ. Church of Christ, for the most part, still have church pews without pads, and they are straight up and down.

So when you sit in there, you're sitting straight up, and you're paying attention. Fire and brimstone type of preaching, you know, and slapping the Bible. Oh my gosh, did the preacher know what I did last night? I mean, those type of sermons were being preached. Today, when we hear the truth like that, we fade away from it, so we don't pay attention. We go someplace where there's no controversy, where people speak our language, and oh, hey, I'm with those guys. Why? Because they're not telling us anything we don't want to hear. If they tell us what we don't want to hear, we don't associate with them. And I think that's been a problem.

It's happened here in the Ohio Valley. We still, thankfully, have a lot of small communities with small churches who do a lot of good things. I'm not a big fan of the mega, you know, everybody happy, because that's not true life. We're not going to have roses every day. Sure. Just like this interview, you know, we're going back and forth on a lot of topics, but we may not agree on everything. But we're sitting here having a great conversation about what's important.

Our hometown, our home region, we should be promoting it. The Ohio Valley Energy Association, which currently I'm the president, I don't know how much longer they'll let me stay there, but we promote energy. We try to have educational meetings. People say, well, why do you do what you do? Well, we're trying to network and get people to understand that they're an ambassador to the energy industry at their little league games, at their school board meetings, at that Friday night football game. What do you do? Well, I work in the oil and gas industry and be proud of it. Let people know that it's a good industry, good paying jobs, which leads me into another reason why you stay here is the work ethic. You know, we've got, you know, whether you're pro-union or anti-union, we've got some of the best union halls in the

country. And we have dedicated, well-trained workers. I talked to two of my granddaughters who are both 15 years old, and I said, what are you girls going to do? You're thinking still about college? No. Why would we go to college? We go to work we can go we can go to you know uh one of the tech centers vocational schools and be working our junior and senior year and go right into a well-paying job my oldest granddaughter Maddie, said she's thinking about being a welder. And those opportunities wouldn't be there. Now, I'll go back to the 80s, late 70s, early 80s. I was told by my high school guidance counselor, why would you want to go to college? You can go to work for Cravat Coal and start making good money right now.

So we're back to that, doing things with our hands. And that's what Ohio Valley people have always done. We make things. We manufacture. But we manufacture our own raw materials. That's the reason, you know. Right. Right, exactly.

So it's very important for you to collaborate with local businesses and organizations. I agree. And I think we have to really understand that collaboration and that building relationships. And when I talk to people about what we do at the Chamber and what Ohio University Eastern does, we kind of connect people into those different jobs that you said, or different organizations. So what would you say to a young person who is just thinking about going to college to get that business degree? They can also then go to a trade school and do something with their hands if they would like to do. But they can do both things, right? Oh, yeah.

Multitasking. And how important is that? So let's just talk about multitasking. That's what this generation, 30 and younger, is great at. They don't even realize it. They are. How they can multitask so many things and still concentrate. Now, maybe that concentration don't last long, but they're

capable of doing it. So the work ethic, again, is built into them. That's genetically. The tech schools can offer, if you want to go there, go. If you want to go to a two-year or four-year school, go. Either way, there's unbelievable job opportunities right here in the high valley uh the chemical industry the plastics industry need qualified engineers right all right those engineering jobs started 120 a year those trade jobs like we were saying you can go be a journeyman or an apprentice electrician uh pipeliner heavy equipment making 80 000 and up a year right off the bat. So the opportunities there. Why would somebody that's 14, 15, 16-year-old ever think about leaving?

I have no clue. The best example I can give you, I went to Shenandoah High School for a job fair. If you don't know anything about Shenandoah High School, get to know that school district. Phenomenal advantage of what they have to offer. They've got their own farm on campus. Okay, I didn't know that. Their fifth and sixth graders and seventh and eighth graders

have their own food truck that they raise on the farm and they prepare and present. They're going around catering to events. Wow. So we're down at the job fair, and I'm going with all the students, asking, what do you plan to do? Not one student out of about 30 students said they were leaving. Why would I ever leave Noble County? We've got everything we need right here. If anything, I'm building a new house on dad's farm, and I'm going to stay here farming. Or one boy, fifth grader, in his bib overhaul,

says to me, he said, my daddy works for Gulfport, and so will I. You know, so, I mean, that mentality. But the school district's so involved, it's all related around STEM education. Yeah. All right? They did a fantastic job, and a lot of school districts. River High School's benefited. Harrison Central's benefited.

Carrollton. And so the high school education now is just phenomenal and everything that's available. I told my wife the other day, we were watching TV9 News and there was at least, it was during the Olympics, there was at least five separate school districts advertising on the local news about why you should come to our school district and then showing what they offer. I'm amazed with what Martins Ferry or Steubenville and some of these other high schools are able to offer now. They're rising to the challenge of what's available here in the Ohio Valley. It's not like the old high school when I went years ago.

No. Hey, what do I have to take for college prep classes? Right, exactly. Yeah, what we offer now. Well, and honestly, I'll just kind of bring it full circle here. I'll say without what you just mentioned in the high school and the way that, you know, the community is investing in it. Like, I wouldn't be here, sitting here with a microphone talking to you guys if it weren't for the opportunities that I was given at Harrison Central because of the way that they've been able to grow and the things that they were able to do and and help me out with you know along the way and that like when you put

it in that perspective that's one life changed how many others are just like that how many other opportunities are being open now that weren't open before that can change lives all the time, all over the valley. You mentioned Harrison Central. Our county, Harrison's got just a little over 16,000 people in the entire county. When the oil and gas started, I had a farmer who farms close to 2,000 acres. He said, Jimmy, he said, our family's been here about the same amount of generations years he said if i had it my way i'd build a fence 10 foot high fence all around harrison county and not let anybody else in he said people are going to learn our secret they're going to learn what harrison county is all about the grazing cattle and the sheep, the beautiful timber, the lakes, the lands, the hunting, the unbelievable hunting and fishing.

It's going to get too populated. We're not going to like it. Well, luckily, a lot of those oil and gas workers are just like us. They've settled in. I don't know how many families from Louisiana or in our area or Texas and Oklahomans that have settled here and they just flat love it. I mean, you think about it, they're like a modern day pioneer in that way or, you know, like a settler because they're coming from a different place and they're looking for better opportunities and prosperity. And they come up here and they find it and they probably have the same look on their eyes when they first come to the Ohio Valley that you mentioned the, you know, the, the, the pioneers having when they came across through the mountains and everything. Oh, and, and, and first thing I'm

thinking of is when you just said that is a gentleman by the name of Ray Walker. Ray Walker's with a company called Encino Energy. And Ray actually staying in a camper out at Tappan Lake. You know, major leading oil producer in Ohio. And he loves to fish and he's enjoying the MWCD lakes. You know, and they've become part of the community. Yeah. You know, they really have. You know, there are some people that just want to come up here and take it back to Houston or take it back to wherever. But the majority of the workers they're staying local we went

from man camps and daycares to hey we're living here where can we buy a house you know so so that's what you know what I deal with some of our members and just community members will say I don't really like those white trucks. You know, the quote-unquote white trucks, that's all they see. But it makes them feel like, you know, all they do is work here, but they send their money back home. But anymore, they might have done that early on, but you're right. Now they're staying here. They're paying taxes.

They're buying groceries. They're paying taxes. They're buying groceries. They're shopping local. They're contributing to our local economy. And that is what people have to understand. They are here. There's a reason why they're here. We just need to open up and extend that welcome. No doubt.

I pulled in and parked my 2014 Chevy white truck. So I'm one of those white truck guys. But the bottom line is the gas stations, the supermarkets, the restaurants, the hotels that sprung up overnight. Caddis, when I went to the village council and talked about building hotels and caddis they thought i was nuts i said we're gonna need at least two oh jim well by the time we got them built we you know most of the build out was done uh but yeah a lot of those people have have settled in and become part of the community uh one of the things that that we talk about a lot is uh how their kids would be taken care of

we spent two full weeks in the dakotas in the bach and shale talking to mayors and community leaders and just like we did in northeast pa what what would you guys do different well we would think about daycare and elementary schools. And I said, why daycare and elementary? They said, well, you've got to think of the average age of those working in the oil patch. And if they have children, they're going to be from ages newborn to 11. We've got to have something for them. So start thinking about daycare uh start thinking about

spin-off businesses laundromats uh service companies food trucks uh camper sales portable lights port-a-johns just the stuff that all a lot of people don't think about right and so slow but sure these people like hey the ohio valley people aren't much different from where we come from. I'm going to get out of this camper, and I'm going to find me a place to live. And it goes back to that affordability. I mean, $148,000 for the average home in our area compared to $281,000. And if you're an oil field worker i'm not saying every oil field worker is a hunter and a fisherman some are some of them love to golf and we got some great golf

courses that's right but there's so much to offer here that's just low key you know we're setting outside a uh capital music hall and and you think back to the old days of WWVA and 1170 or whatever, and listening to some of the music coming off of that stage, you still have quality events going on here. I looked on the website. My wife and I are coming down, I guess airing on this, I might watch I say it, but seeing William Shatner. Yes. What is he, 93? Yeah, go see him here. Who ever thought you'd see Captain Kirk in Wheeling?

But the bottom line, there's so much to do, and we've kind of blended it, just like back in the 1700s, just like back in the 1930s and 40s, we are a blended community. And that's what we do in the Ohio Valley. We put our arms around each other and how do we help you? Not push you away. We're bringing you in. Well, that's what, funny you should say that. We had Pastor Chris Figaretti from the New Bridge Church here.

And he said one of the things that is needed in the ohio valley is child care so they bought the museum they turned it into a huge you know new bridge academy which is something that is needed um because you that you can't have enough of that because you know i have a bunch of grandkids, so I know my kids need that. Quality daycare. Quality is the point. Daycare. And, you know, you talk about other things.

We have the symphony here. That is so magnificent. You know, you don't have to understand it. Just come and listen to it. But we have things for everybody to do. Oglebay, Wheeling Park, Grandview look at what Grandview has just done and you know down in Moundsville. Well it goes goes back to what the farmer in Harrison County told me we know what we've got yeah we just have

to let everybody else know what we have and once they're here they realize right but we we still have to promote it I sure I read uh I think it was on your guys' website, somebody that's not advertising anymore. Well, I don't want to spend money on advertising. You always have to. You always. And market. And literally, that's what we're doing. We're promoting and marketing our hydrocarbons in our area through Ohio Valley Energy, through the the Naro association, through our realty company, whatever it is,

this is what we offer you, you know, come and be a part of it. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I, I, I, I've really appreciated the conversation. You lost some words there, didn't you? I lost some words. You do. This was really good.

This is not the first time a Watson and a Millison have been across from each other doing something good. That's right. That's right. Well, we really appreciate your time. We're thankful to have you on and great talking to you. Wendy, it's been great. Yep. Once again, for the listener, you can reach us with any kind of feedback at ouepodcastatohio.edu.

For Jim Millison, Wendy Anderson, I'm Drake Watson. Thank you for listening to Community Connections and Commerce.