IRONTON -- State grants are being sought for $620,000 for Chatam Steel Co. to build a warehousing and fabricating business on a 12-acre parcel adjacent to the Duke Energy plant in Hamilton Township. The project would provide more than 50 jobs, said Ralph Kline, assistant executive director of the Ironton-Lawrence County Area Community Action Organization.
The Lawrence County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved two resolutions seeking $500,000 in community development block grant funds and $120,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission to build a rail spur for the project, Kline said. Chatam Steel is putting up $6.6 million for the project, he said.
The property is owned by the Lawrence County Port Authority and is adjacent to Duke Power and Rumpke's recycling business off County Road 1A west of Hanging Rock, he said.
"It should be a good project for our area," Kline said. "It could provide 50 to 60 jobs. We're going through the application process now."
The Community Action Organization could hear about whether the grant funding will be forthcoming in about a month. If the financing is in place and an environmental review of the property goes well, construction could begin later this year. The project will take about a year to build and could be open for business next year.
Chatam Steel is looking at the site to be a regional distribution site for several states including Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana, Kline said.
The board also adopted a resolution requesting the Ohio Department of Transportation consider building a ramp from the proposed Ironton-Russell Bridge to 1st Street, an industrial area outside the city floodwall and south of the Norfolk and Southern railroad tracks. The area has about 68 acres and could be used for economic development and jobs, Kline said.
"If there was an on and off ramp from the new bridge, trucks wouldn't have to come through town," he said.
Commissioner Jason Stephens asked whether such a request would delay the project not scheduled for construction until 2013.
"The project is being redesigned, so we thought this would be timely," Kline said. "We don't want it delayed. Now is the time to make such a request. It would open up some 68 acres of prime industrial property."
Kline said traffic flow is being reviewed in Ironton, the first time since the early 1980s. Information from the traffic counts will be part of a public hearing at a later date.
In other action, the board received for study a request from the Lawrence County Board of Elections to transfer about $35,000, including more than $29,000 from the line item used to pay poll workers.
Commissioner Doug Malone said the commissioners need to ask board members how they plan to fund their salary accounts to pay employees and poll workers through the end of the year. Currently, the board of elections has money in the salary account to pay employees through Oct. 15.
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