TORONTO - Progress Alliance has become a hub for business guidance and direction under a nine-county partnership launched by the MCBI Regional Incubator for Entrepreneurs, based in Zanesville.

The announcement was made Tuesday during the Community Improvement Corp.'s October board meeting held in the Toronto Municipal Building. The CIC oversees operations of the public-private Progress Alliance economic development organization.

Jessica Sherman, regional coordinator for the project, said the partnership was created based upon the needs seen in the nine counties in the group. They include Coshocton, Harrison, Jefferson, Muskingum, Guernsey, Belmont, Morgan, Noble and Monroe.

By becoming the official hub under the program for Jefferson County, Progress Alliance is the point of contact for business services.

Ed Looman, executive director of Progress Alliance, said, "If someone needs help, they will know where to go. We may not have all the answers, but we can get them."

Looman said the advantage for Progress Alliance is that the partnership will be providing marketing materials to guide business to the organization.

Sherman will make at least two trips a month to Jefferson County to work with local businesses and Progress Alliance.

"You guys are doing so many great things here already without the support of the region," Sherman told the CIC board. She said there is strength in numbers, and the nine-county region will be able to attract more attention from the state.

"We can connect the dots as a region and make the region stronger as a result," she said.

Jefferson County Commissioner Tom Gentile provided the CIC with an update in ongoing talks with the state regarding the future of Jefferson Lake State Park. State officials have decided that maintaining the park as a full state park for $100,000 a year is too costly and have said the park will be turned over to the Department of Natural Resources to be maintained as a wildlife area. That would mean the end of the beach, campgrounds and other amenities at the park near Richmond.

Gentile said talks are continuing with the state on a possible county takeover of the park, though he and Commissioner Tom Graham said the issue of local funding for the purchase would need to be worked out.

Among the concerns county officials have cited include liability issues to cover the park lake's dam.

The group also heard presentations from Irene Moore, director of the Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District, Wende Zadanski, the organization's natural resources specialist; and Clint Finney, the area's U.S. Department of Agriculture natural resources conservation division official, about the prevalence of farming in Jefferson County.

The county has 480 farms, with less than five of those run by full-time farmers without outside employment, Zadanski said. Jefferson County farms, not including timber operations, had $10 million in cash receipts in 2007. She said the average farm netted about $3,000 for its owners.

Moore said the annual soil and water conservation district dinner, to be held Tuesday at St. Florian Hall in Wintersville, will feature locally produced meat and vegetables..

"You would be amazed at what a real chicken tastes like," Moore said.

(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)