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Wilson tours South Point industrial park
Rick Griffith shows Rep. Charlie Wilson , D-Ohio, around the facilities at McGinnis Inc. as Wilson stopped by The Point Industrial Park visiting Engines Inc. and McGinnis Inc. to continue his Built in America tour Friday, September 3, 2010, in South Point.
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SOUTH POINT, Ohio -- U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Ohio, got a first-hand look Friday at The Point, a South Point industrial park where he's helped finance $3.6 million in rail and road improvements to help bring jobs to Southern Ohio.
Wilson stopped by the Greater Lawrence County Area Chamber of Commerce before visiting McGinnis Inc., a barge fleeting, repair and construction business in Sheridan and at Engines Inc., a manufacturing company that supplies parts for railroads, steel mills and coal mines as part of his Made in America tour.
"I like what I see in Lawrence County," said Wilson. He's also put in a $700,000 appropriation in the transportation budget for the industrial park. The bill has passed the House and is in the Senate. Wilson also is supporting a $16.2 million Tiger grant application for The Point. The money would be used to bring in cranes and to develop a river port at the industrial park.
"I'm a strong believer in build it in America," Wilson said. "We've stopped that. We need to get back to it."
Wilson said trade agreements like NAFTA and KAFTA have hurt American manufacturing. He also opposed the proposed Cap and Trade legislation currently before Congress.
He supports closing tax loopholes and other issues that provide incentives to send jobs overseas. "More and more manufacturers are looking to come back to the United States due to energy and transportation costs," he said.
Wilson is running for re-election in Ohio's 6th Congressional District. He faces Republican Bill Johnson, Libertarian Martin J. Elsass, Independent Cory McCusker and Constitution Party candidate Richard E. Cadle in November.
McGinnis has 250 employees in Southern Ohio, said Bruce McGinnis. The company would hire more employees if it could get qualified people, he said. "We could use 20 to 30 welders right now," said Rick Griffith, company president.
Carl Grover, owner of Engines Inc., said he could use 50 welders, fabricators and machinists. The company has three buildings in the industrial park and would like to buy two more shell buildings under construction there. "We're hiring every day," he said.
The business had a peak of 235 employees before the economy turned sour. The number of workers dropped to 30, but is on the rise again. "I have about 100 people," Grover said. "Manufacturing is what built this country.
"I may have to start my own trade school," he said.
Griffith said McGinnis also is looking into training people in the type of welding it needs to repair Ohio River barges.
"We have to train people for new jobs," Wilson said. "We need to have more exports. I believe 60 to 70 percent of new jobs will come from small business. These are the type of jobs that are less likely to go overseas. We need to help companies from 100 people to 300 workers."
The federal stimulus money Wilson helped secure for the industrial park will be used to build a 200-by-400-foot concrete pad, rail scales and two rail spurs and a road from there to the riverfront. The $700,000 would be used to refurbish railroad tracks inside the industrial park.
