McALESTER - Simonton
Windows plans to add two extra production
lines at its factory here, part of a
recent wave on industrial expansions
in the eastern Oklahoma city.
The expansion will create 40 jobs when
new window and glass lines start in
April, Simonton spokeswoman Kathy Ziprik
said. The factory currently produces
10 lines of windows and glass.
"The facility was opened in 2002
with more space than we were actually
utilizing at the time with the hope
that productions need would expand as
they are now," Ziprik said.
Simonton's plans follow other announcements
by ladies sleepwear distributor Charles
Komar & Sons Inc. and plastic make
Pliant Corp.
Komar will triple the size of its warehouse
and hire 70 additional workers in the
next few years. Pliant will get $5 million
color printing press and will add 19
jobs at its factory, which makes plastic
for personal-care products, sc uh as
diapers.
All of the jobs will qualify for the
state's Quality Jobs of Small Employer
Quality Jobs program. That means workers
must be offered health insurance coverage
and the jobs must pay at least the average
salary for the county -- $27,358 in
Pittsburgh County.
"In McAlester, we take care of
you before, during and after the sale,"
said Jim Mills, executive director of
the McAlester Economic Development Service.
"That's real important to existing
businesses and industry in this area,
who realize we partner with them. The
people and work force down here are
productive, and that's the real key
to McAlester's current surge of people
wanting to add new jobs and expand."
Kitty Corder, the assistant director
for the service, said the city has been
better equipped to help local companies
since voters passed a 10-year, one-quarter-cent
sales tax for economic development in
2003. Another one-quarter-cent sales
tax went to education.
Corder said McAlester's low-cost of
living, work force productivity and
safety record also have contributed
to recent expansion plans. For example,
Simonton recently went one year without
a lost-time accident at the plant and
gave away a Jeep Cherokee in a drawing
as a reward to workers.
"We're about 20 percent below the
average cost of living, which helps
attract companies and helps them to
expand," said Corder, referring
to a recent study by economic development
consulting firm Accra.
Simonton, which is based in Parkersburg,
W. VA., has 431 employees in McAlester,
more than double what it started out
with when the factory opened in 2002. |
