Patti Harvey, vice president of Human Resources for the Weidmann International Coproration Group, or WICOR, said the company will hire about 110 employees. Those positions will mostly be machine operators, as well as a small supervisory and administrative staff. Harvey said the company could begin to hire those workers late this year, but it is more likely they will be hired in 2011.
Some of those employees will be moving from other locations within the company, but the majority will be new hires, she said.
Although the company was considering several other sites, Urbana was chosen because of a number of factors.
“It was the location of the facility relative to the markets we serve and a trained work force,” Harvey said.
Another reason the city was an attractive site was due to the fact that many local workers already have training in the industry after working at the previous paper company, Harvey said. New employees will still need to be trained in most cases because the grade of the paper and the quality standards are different than what was done at Fox River, Harvey said. She said the quality of life available in the city also made it attractive for the company’s employees.
In addition, both the state and the city offered incentive packages to make the site more attractive to WICOR.
Late last year, the Ohio Controlling Board approved a $10 million loan package to allow the company to buy machinery and renovate the site. City officials also covered the costs for environmental reviews to clean up contaminants that had been found at the previous site, including arsenic that had leached into the ground at a coal yard.
The state also offered funds to help cover the costs of training new employees, said Melanie Kendrick, community development director for Urbana.
Kendrick said the city has been working on the project for about 2 1/2 years. Over that time, she said a comfort level developed between the city and company officials.
“We’ve developed a relationship over time with the vice presidents of the company that we’ve been working with directly,” Kendrick said.
In all, Weidmann will invest about $35 million into the local economy as part of the expansion.
“Without the aid of all of our partners, including the Champaign Technology and Employment Center, the State of Ohio Economic Development Division and the support of the city council, we may not have seen this project happen, said Ruth Zerkle, Urbana mayor. “It’s been a long process, and I could not be happier than to welcome Weidmann Electrical Technology to Urbana.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0355 or msanctis@coxohio.com.
About the Author