Local governments have been asked to pledge $26,000 a year toward operation of a new small business development center in Warren County.

It would be the second center formed in Warren County, replacing a pilot project set up last year in Mason.

Last year, the Northeast Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce set up a satellite office in Mason with start-up funds from the American Jobs Act to the BizTech Center, an incubator in Butler County. This center failed to win local support, officials said.

“They were going to have to get buy-in from the public and private sector,” said Martin Russell, director of economic development in Warren County. “It’s not going away. It’s being converted to this new model with this new host.”

The county has committed $5,000 to the new center. Cities including Springboro, Franklin, Lebanon and Mason have been asked to contribute $3,000 each, villages and townships $1,000-$2,000 apiece.

Businesses and non-profits have pledged another $8,500. The Warren County Career Center has offered office space.

Typically universities and non-profit shoulder the local share of operating costs. In Warren County, the lion’s share of the local share will come from local governments.

“It’s the first time we’ve done something like this,” said John Melvin, director of the SBDC at the Clermont County Chamber of Commerce. “It’s hardly ever from the community. It’s usually from the private sector.”

This year $3.2 million in state and federal funding has been set aside for 46 centers and satellites, including the new one being set up in Warren County. Last year the centers helped in creation of 401 new businesses and 3,494 jobs last year, according to the Ohio Development Services Agency.

The new Warren County center is to receive $10,000 a year from the state and $40,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Already there are seven centers or satellites operating in the Dayton-Cincinnati area.

Currently some entrepreneurs and small business owners in Warren County cross county lines for help, said Pat Newcomb, director of the SBDC at The Entrepreneurs Center in downtown Dayton.

Since opening in 2008, Newcomb said her center has helped more than 300 small businesses, including some located in Franklin.

Still, the new center would fill a need, Newcomb said. “The demand for the services far exceeds the supply.”

Local entrepreneurs and companies working with out-of-county centers could wind up being wooed out of Warren County, Russell said. “Their growth and their success is our community’s success,” he said.

Local governments can help new business get located, but lack expertise available at the centers in business planning, financial management, access to capital, government contracting, international trade or marketing.

“We really don’t have the expertise with the other things it takes to start a small business,” Springboro Assistant City Manager Chris Pozzuto said.

The centers also offer training and referrals. New ones open when enough supporters agree on the need to cut the travel time of entrepreneurs and small business owners looking for help, Newcomb said.

“A lot depends on proximity…. If there’s a felt sense people have to drive too far to learn how to start a business,” she said.

In addition to Newcomb’s office in downtown Dayton, small businesses in Warren County can get help from existing centers in Midddletown and Hamilton in Butler County as well as centers in Cincinnati and Clermont County. There are also small business centers in Springfield, and at Wright State University in Fairborn and Edison Community College in Piqua.

Elected officials are expected to consider funding the new center in coming weeks.

“Warren County wanted its own small business development center,” Assistant Mason City Manager Jennifer Heft said. “It didn’t want to operate under Butler County anymore.”

Russell said supporters also had to overcome long-standing assumptions about “the dynamics of Warren County. You’ve got the north and the south divide” separating communities oriented more toward Dayton from those leaning toward Cincinnati.

“Warren County is Warren County. There is not a divide,” Russell said.

Pozzuto projected a potential doubling or tripling of income tax collections by the local governments helping to fund the new Warren County center, based on results reported by other small business development centers.

“I would hope for the same or better return,” Pozzuto said.