IRONTON -- About the time that Ralph Kline began development planning in Lawrence County, the community had fallen on its knees.

New environmental regulations were instituted and put many factories out of business. Heavy industry was required to make several expensive upgrades to meet new environmental standards, and they just couldn't do it.

"When I came in 1981, the city of Ironton was in a state of fiscal emergency," said Kline, now the assistant executive director for development and planning for the Lawrence County Community Action Organization.

The unemployment rate in the early 1980s was 19 percent, Kline said. The state even came in and oversaw the management of the city.

That's when the city set up two groups to focus on economic recovery. Kline dove in, and he's still up to his neck.

It's been a long road, and there is much, much work still to do, but today the unemployment rate is less than 5 percent, Kline said.

"He's a tireless worker for Lawrence County," said Lawrence County Commissioner Jason Stephens. "He's done a lot of projects, and he's working as hard now as he's ever worked."

To get the area back on its feet in the 1980s took a combination of approaches. At that time, the Community Action Organization and Chamber pooled their resources and sought out new ones to help flailing businesses. They applied for borrowed money to loan out to businesses. They used tax incentive programs, business loan programs and foreign trade zones.

That all served as a model for what they still do today, Kline said.

"The biggest help has been being able to pull enough resources to have industrial lands to go out and market (to attract new businesses)," he said. "Now, we've become more effective.

"Things have come a long way," Kline added. "The economy -- I hope it holds out. It seems we're making a stronger (local economy). The economic advantages we have are things driving the economy globally right now -- energy and transportation. We have a lot of industries that surround or supply those businesses. We don't have a lot of coal miners here, but we have supplies for the coal industry."

While the unemployment rate is down to about 4.8 percent, which is below the state average and in January was below the national average, there are still signs of how much more needs to be done, he said. Thirty percent of the population still uses some type of public assistance and there are many people not even being considered by the workforce for various reasons, he said.

He would like to see the county develop more training programs to help it fill the vacant positions that businesses have but for which they can't find enough skilled employees. Welders, machine operators and electrical engineers are in high demand, Kline said.

"We're trying to develop training programs at vocational schools," he said. "It's a good problem to have."

Lawrence County is indeed in good shape compared with some of its neighboring counties in Southern Ohio, Stephens said, and much of the growth should be credited to Kline. And the state has recognized that. It honored Kline with the 2006 Directors Economic Development Achievement Award, presented by the Ohio Department of Development.

"He is just dedicated and as determined of a person as I've ever met, but he's diplomatic as well," Stephens said.

Bill Dingus, executive director of the Lawrence County Economic Development Corporation, described Kline as a major facilitator for the good projects happening in Lawrence County. A road expansion and new shopping center in South Point, the bypass project and the Main Street program are efforts that wouldn't be as far along without his help.

"I've traveled lots of miles with Ralph," Dingus said. "Ralph is one of the most outstanding citizens we have."

A focus of Kline's now is downtown revitalization, in the form of loft apartments and riverfront development.

For the lofts, the strategy is for the public sector to lead the way in investing in renovations of downtown properties, so that private investors eventually will see the value of the project and jump in, Kline said.

"The solution comes from private investment, but the public sector has to take a leading role," he said. The first strategy was to keep government workers' jobs downtown, so they'd continue pumping money into the businesses down there, and now they're turning to the residential side of things.

Park Avenue Apartments is one success story so far. It's the former Marting Hotel, which had fallen into disrepair and is now 50 senior apartments with a senior center.

Meanwhile, the community is counting on $1 million in grants for some developments along the Ohio River, Kline said. It would go toward a new shelter, nice parking area, a staging area and new rest rooms.

"We're using the Main Street approach to get people to come downtown for festivals and events downtown," Kline said. "It's bringing outside dollars to the community and the market that hopefully downtown businesses will be able to take advantage of."

After nearly three decades trying to bring dollars and new business to his home county, he looks back and says that it's been fulfilling work.

"It's one of those things. You better enjoy it, working for a nonprofit, because it's not for the money," he said. "You have a proud community that wants to make things happen, and to make it happen, you have to work together."