"By Dan O'BrienYOUNGSTOWN -- U.S. Rep. Timothy Ryan, D-17th Ohio, wants northeast Ohio to learn more about and promote its past as part of an effort to inspire the region's leaders of tomorrow. That's the rationale behind The Western Reserve Study Act, a bill Ryan introduced last October and detailed for reporters at a press conference yesterday. The bill would secure $250,000 for a feasibility study geared toward designating the Connecticut Western Reserve a National Heritage Area. The bill is before the House Committee on Resources, he reported."We want young people to realize that this area has always had innovators and inventors" instrumental in creating new businesses, Ryan said at the press event held at the Youngstown Business Incubator downtown. These risk-takers enabled the region, based on the steel, oil and rubber industries they built, to prosper most of the 20th century, he noted.The region stands out, the congressman continued, because, throughout its history, it was controlled by so many cultures and developed by natives of foreign countries. In 1800, the state of Connecticut officially ceded title to the region to the fledgling federal government.Heritage Areas are designations intended to encourage cooperation among private entities, government agencies and non-profit groups so they can effect programs that preserve and recognize the importance of a geographic region. Being selected as a Heritage Area qualifies projects devoted to promoting the region's historical, geographic and cultural identity or preservation for federal funds. A single Heritage Area could receive up to $10 million over 10 years. The National Park Service of the U.S. Interior Department administers Heritage Areas.If his bill is approved, Ryan said, Congress would allocate money for a feasibility study to identify criteria intended to pave the way for the region being declared a Heritage Area.Once the study is completed, Congress would determine whether the region meets the guidelines for Heritage Area designation. The language that governs such criteria is broad, but the Bush Administration is working to establish stricter guidelines, the congressman explained."We've struggled more than 20 years to redevelop our image," Ryan said, before offering that identifying the region as a Heritage Area is "a good place to start." Another rationale for the initiative, Ryan related, is his hope that it would promote greater cooperation among the non-profit groups, universities, counties and cities in the region. Such interaction could lead to other cooperative ventures involving business and economic development. "We want to pull new money into this community and keep the money that's here," he said.The Heritage Area would cover the counties of Ashtabula, Ashland, Trumbull, Mahoning, Geauga, Lake, Portage, Summit, Medina, Huron, Lorain, Erie, Ottawa and Cuyahoga.At the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, the congressman met recently with a panel of representatives of the National Park Service, the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area in Pittsburgh and the Ohio & Erie Canal Corridor Coalition. The group discussed organizational development and planning and partnerships for the Western Reserve Heritage Area, Ryan reported. That meeting prompted yesterday's news conference.Bobbie Brown, chairman of the Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County, said establishing the Western Reserve Heritage Area would stimulate the economy in the Mahoning Valley and the rest of northeast Ohio. "Tourism would increase," she said, "and we could market the region jointly."At least 24 regions across the country hold Heritage Area designations. Among them are the Hudson River Valley in New York, the National Coal Heritage Area in West Virginia, Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area in Arizona and the Motor Cities Automobile National Heritage Area in Michigan.Contact Senior Reporter Dan O'Brien: [email protected] "