The Stewart-Houston Industrial Park and Development Boards met at the Houston County Courthouse July 28 with all members present. The first item discussed was Tennessee Steel Buildings, a company who recently purchased land in the industrial park. Scott Beller announced Tennessee Steel Buildings is planning on moving their entire operation to the industrial park.
Beller stated, “When I first came down and spoke to you, we talked about moving a piece of our operation here. We talked about a 100 by 80 foot building, buying a clipping machine, making some capital investments and moving that part of our operation to Houston County. We’ve made some changes, as of right now, we’ve purchased the property and paid for it. We’re moving dirt at present and the weather is not helping anything with dirt work, but we have a goal right now to build a 150 by 80 foot building and a second building of 280 by 250. We’re going to be looking at moving our total operation here.”
Beller said they are going to try to have their panel operation, welding operation and bending operation in the Industrial Park by April. He said their tubing machine is their largest capital investment, it’s about 250 foot long, has four electrical panels and is extremely heavy. They may have to run their tubing at their current site and transfer it down and manufacture that way for a while. He said it will be a lengthy process to move the tubing machine. Beller said, “Right now, we burn way too much tow motor fuel, moving material from one spot to the next, moving it around. We want to get it to where we run and it flows and it picks up and we’re able to ship that way.”
Terry Fitzhugh asked Beller how many employees they have and he said 38 or 39 as well as 12 install crews that will be contract labor. He said they have five average on each crew. Beller also said he is sure they will have to hire new employees because some would not want the commute. He said the average wage is $22 an hour in the factory.
Next on the agenda, all members approved allocating $144k to repave the road in the industrial park on the Stewart County side. Spurgeon said the paving will happen in August. Furthermore, Spurgeon said the cost for a website for the Industrial Park would cost approximately $1,800 to $2,400 dollars. All members approved spending no more than $2,400 to create a website…