40 Years Reflection: Kovach Says Younger Workforce Is Needed

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Michael Kovach was offered a job in 1984 that would require his family to move to Atlanta or St. Louis.

But he and his wife had two daughters and a move would mean losing the support of his children’s grandparents.

“I always wanted to start my own business,” says Kovach, president of City Machine Technologies in Youngstown.

So he sat down with his wife, telling her he had the contacts and he could secure the financing through what was then the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp.

“It was the time to roll the dice and see what happens,” he says. “It was either now or never, basically. So we did.”

CMT, an industrial service company, started in 1985.

“We’re doing pretty much the same as we originally started doing only on a much larger scale,” Kovach says. “And that’s catering to power plants, both coal fired – which are diminishing – gas fired, hydro and also nuclear, and steel mills and heavy industry.”

The company specializes in providing engineered services and manufacturing for a wide range of industrial applications. It also maintains ventilations systems in large shopping malls, food businesses and the auto industry.

“We don’t do heating, ventilating, air conditioning. But the big fans that were put in the basement when the building was built, basically, there’s no way to get them back out,” he says. “So you do everything on site.”

Like most businesses, technology has changed CMT.

“For one thing, computer numerical control machines have definitely taken over,” Kovach points out. “They’re faster. You get better surface finishes. If they’re programmed right, the tolerances are held; that sort of thing.”

That’s compared to a manual machine, which required someone with a good skillset to input the information and turn knobs at the right time. With retirements, that skillset is going away and training isn’t available.

“The younger generation today,  they know a keyboard better than they know the cranks on a manual machine,” Kovach says.

“We definitely need a younger group of people, employees in the area,” he says. “If you look at demographics, the ages, we’re a little bit older than we really should be for the potential this area has.”

The mentality needs to change, he says, noting that some people still think back to the 1950s and ’60s, the area’s heyday when steel mills were booming. But that was a dirty industry, he says.

“We’ve conquered all of that,” Kovach says. “Those dinosaurs are gone. Really, we’ve got clean industry now, good companies, and we just need a good workforce.”

Pictured at top: Michael Kovach started CMT in 1984.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.