SCIOTO COUNTY – Earlier this month Fluor-BWXT (formerly Fluor-B&W) awarded a $40,000 grant from the Fluor-BWXT Community Commitment Fund to a local pipe fabrication and construction firm to purchase equipment and expand their production facilities.
Tri-America Contractors, located at 1664 Ohio 522, Wheelersburg, will soon hire six new employees as result of the expansion. The company specializes in the refining, steel-making and power generating industries.
Tri-America President Scott Taylor is grateful for the grant that will be used to build much needed shop space. “Our crews will be working two 10-hour shifts a day, five days a week,” Taylor said. “Right now, we have six welders on days and another six on nights. Eventually, we’ll add up to four new welders as well as one new driver and another quality control specialist.”
Tri-America, which was founded in 1997, performs tig-, mig-, stick- and pulse-welding at their Wheelersburg facility. Some of their customers include: Dow Chemical, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Mark West, and Marathon Oil. They have jobs lined up at refineries in Canton, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois.
Fluor-BWXT’s Nuclear Operations Director and Community Commitment Fund Board Member Tim Poe explains why Tri-America was selected.
“Tri-America has the exact type of business model that we look for when we are evaluating where to go with our economic initiative funds,” Poe said. “This is business expansion and job creation, which promotes economic sustainability well into the future. We look to use these funds as a way to jump start small businesses.”
Fluor-BWXT partners with area economic directors and county commissioners that are part of the Joint Economic Development Initiative of Southern Ohio (JEDISO) to support economic growth in the area. Scioto County Commissioner and JEDISO member Bryan Davis said expanding the facility will lead to more jobs in the area. “I think the recent expansion of Tri-America is great for the community in many ways. The most important benefit of course is the creation of jobs for the people in our region now and into the future.”
“These are good paying jobs putting food on kitchen tables and a roof over the heads of families in our community. That has a positive impact on everyone. The Scioto County Commissioners would like to thank Fluor-BWXT and JEDISO for making today possible.”
Through a partnership with the local communities, Fluor-BWXT supports grant requests from Pike, Ross, Scioto and Jackson counties looking to grow their businesses and add quality jobs to this region. Each year Fluor-BWXT invests more than $500,000 locally through grants and related business support.
From The Jackson County Times Journal | August 6, 2015
