Publication:The Daily Record

WOOSTER -- Having Tom Vilsack, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in town was a great opportunity to showcase what the city and county has to offer, many public officials said Monday.

Wayne County Commissioner Ann Obrecht said she was pleased to have Vilsack visit the area because "we're a showcase for agriculture."

The county is home to a diverse group of farmers and ag-related companies, so it's a "great place to see different types of agriculture," she said.

Bobby Moser, vice president for agricultural administration and the dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State University, said Vilsack's visit was a "tremendous opportunity" for the college, its Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center and its Agricultural Technical Institute.

Vilsack visited ATI's upgraded milking parlor, quasar energy group's biodigester facility on the campus of OARDC and attended a briefing about what was happening with developing a domestic source of rubber.

"It was a great opportunity to show what we are doing here and have him take it back to Washington, D.C.," Moser said.

"For us, it's a once-in-a-career opportunity to have the secretary of agriculture here," said Stephen Nameth, director of ATI. "I'm very happy. We gave him an idea of the things we do."

"It takes someone to make something happen," Mel Kurtz, quasar's chief executive officer, said of Vilsack's visit to the bioenergy company. "And, he's the top of the food chain."

quasar has received some money from the USDA for alternative energy programs.

Tony Logan, state director of the USDA's Rural Development Office, said it was good to have the secretary here to see how some of its money is being delivered and helping to create jobs.

Clemens Halene, vice president of engineering at quasar, said it was "very honoring" to have Vilsack tour the facility.

"I think we did what he expected: Let's create jobs, and we showed him what we can replicate in a commercial setting and ... go into mass production," Halene said.

"As much as anything, (Vilsack's stop in Wooster) is heightening the exposure of everything going on at OARDC and in the region," said Jim Currie, program director for the BioHio Research Park. "I hope it might lead to new opportunities for support or other programs that can be here but are not."

"I'm certainly pleased to have him and show him the research activity going on," said Dr. Mo Saif of OARDC. The visit helps to raise the profile of the center and provide an opportunity to discuss the research's impact.

U.S. Rep. John Boccieri, an Alliance Democrat, invited Vilsack to tour the 16th District and see the agricultural contributions made here.

Reporter Bobby Warren can be reached at 330-287-1639 or bwarren@the-daily-record.com. He's robwar0100 on Twitter.