Plans in motion for bridge builder
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
April 16, 2009
County and city officials are moving ahead with an application for an $800,000 Community Development Block Grant to help bring an Arizona manufacturer of steel bridges and deck joints to Libby’s Kootenai Business Park.
An initial hearing on the grant application was held last Wednesday in the county commissioners’ office; a second hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at Libby City Hall. The joint county-city grant application proposal calls for the funds to be used for infrastructure improvements at the former Stimson mill site, now managed as an industrial district.
Stinger Welding of Coolidge, Ariz., plans to construct a building on the site that would employ 200 people within three years. The company has been working on the proposal with the Kootenai River Development Council, which provides management services for the industrial district. Plans are for Stinger Welding to build the facility; the industrial district would then buy it and lease it back to the company.
The cost of the project is estimated at around $8 million. In addition to the Community Development Block Grant, proposed funding includes a $400,000 grant from Montana’s Big Sky Trust Fund, a $3.2 million loan from the Montana Board of Investments, and $3.3 million from an insurance settlement the industrial district received after the old plywood plant roof collapsed under a heavy snow load.
"Needless to say, we’re excited, and we’ve been excited, and nothing has dampened our enthusiasm about the project," said Lincoln County Commissioner John Konzen.
Stinger Welding owner Carl Douglas said his company has received more than 150 resumes from local workers interested in jobs at the facility. Talented people with experience in the logging and mining industries who are currently out of work "will fit right in," he said.
Douglas plans to have 15 to 20 workers in training by the middle of May at the old central maintenance building on the industrial district site. He hopes to have the new building finished before the snow falls.
Local contractors will be used for construction, Douglas said.
"We have no intent on bringing anybody in from out of state to build this thing," he said.
Douglas said the Libby facility will allow Stinger to expand its presence in the Northwest.
"It’s an easy 200-job facility, but it could go to twice that depending on the appetite of the company and what the government does for steel bridges, and it looks like it will be around for a long time," he said.
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Editor’s Note: See the April 14, 2009 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, now on Tuesday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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