Toyota's 10th anniversary thoughts

Eight days ago, I went to Buffalo, W.Va., to attend the 10th anniversary celebration of Toyota's announcement it would build an engine factory in West Virginia. I covered the story then, and I covered subsequent news out of Toyota until I moved from the straight news side to the opinion side about two years ago.

In that time, I've seen a lot of changes at Toyota. The town of Buffalo has remained remarkably unchanged, however.

Toyota has been good for West Virginia, but we don't seem to have learned one of the big lessons. We need to have sites available for companies looking to build something that big. You can talk about the benefits of small businesses to a local economy, but big business such as Toyota plays a big role, too. And we don't seem to have sites ready for the next Toyota plant.

Shell buildings are good. Industrial parks are good. But a big site ready to go would be even better.

Speaking of which, the city of Ironton has a good site within its city limits. It's where Ironton Iron -- formerly Dayton Malleable Inc. -- once stood. There are ownership and other considerations before that site could be redeveloped, but with brownfields legislation, it would seem there would be some sort of push to redevelop that site. If there is, it's awfully quiet.