At a time when companies nationwide are responding to the economic downturn by pulling back, one company is contemplating a significant expansion that would bring ten new jobs to the area.
Wayne Economic Development Council (WEDC) President Rod Crider appeared at the January 19 Wayne County Commissioners meeting to request approval of an Enterprise Zone Agreement to support a proposed expansion of the Scot Industries Inc. facility on Route 250 in Wooster.
According to Crider the company is contemplating a 65,000 square foot addition to its existing facility and an investment of $1.5 million in equipment. Once complete, ten new jobs with a total annual payroll of $316,000 would be added to Scot Industries workforce.
According to WEDC projections the indirect benefits of the project would reach far beyond the walls of the companys facility.
These ten jobs will generate an additional three jobs in our economy so really its a total of about 13 jobs and the million and a half will convert into a million six or more in additional output throughout our economy so really it does have a snowball effect in terms of promoting our economy in different areas, said Crider.
According to Scot Industries Manufacturing Manager Dave Speigle the project is designed around automating some of what were doing already. There is quite a bit of heat treatment that we do in our facility and this will allow us the opportunity to bring in some equipment to do more of that.
We (also) want to get into the testing end of it because there are some opportunities in the area that lend themselves to our location. With our experience and the lab that we already have set up this works out well for us to bring this under one envelope so that we can watch over it here in Wooster, said Speigle adding this is exciting for us.
Its exciting for the community too, said Commissioner Ann Obrecht. Its great to have a project like this come forward.
As you know in this economy projects like this arent coming through very regularly right now so we are very pleased we have an existing company here thats looking at expanding, said Crider.
Expansion existing companies and attracting new ones are both important aspects of economic development.
We always talk about bringing in new industries but Im a firm believer that you need to take care of what we have already also, said Commissioner Jim Carmichael.
Scot Industries has been a great partner with the county and the abatement process before, said Commissioner Scott Wiggam adding you provide great jobs with good benefits and Wayne County is glad to have you.
Weve been in the community now for about 22 years and one of the reasons that I wanted to help bring this project to Wooster is if we didnt bring it to Wooster it would have gone to either Indiana or Texas and I really thought with our expertise that we have here it would be a good fit for us, said Scot Industries General Manager Bob Gralinski.
We lobbied and we luckily got almost an OK on it and I think this will help immensely, said Gralinski.
The fact that they have chosen Wayne County for this potential expansion speaks a lot to our efforts here to keep our local businesses here and operating successfully, said Crider.
The commissioners approval marks the final step in the approval process for the ten year, fifty percent property tax abatement on the new investment. After the Northwestern School District filed no comments on the abatement, the Chester Township Trustees approved the agreement earlier this month.
