BELLAIRE - Seventy-three jobs could be on their way to the Ohio Valley with the official announcement that Bellaire-based MPR Supply Chain Solutions, Mountaineer Products Inc., is expanding its operations.
Driving along Ohio 7, it is hard to miss the large number of steel coils that have been collecting at the site of the former A&B KIA car dealership on North Guernsey Street.
In April, MPR acquired the land in North Bellaire and is now ready to use it where a transloading operation is being created.
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(Photo by Michael Schuler)
MPR Supply Chain Solutions, Mountaineer Products, in Bellaire will be expanding its operations, it was announced this week.
The coils that are being stored there are made in the United States and shipped to the site from Texas by river barge. From Bellaire, they will be loaded onto trucks, trains and barges and shipped to customers in the Northeast and Canada.
Dave Humphreys, MPR's vice president and chief operating officer, said the site is a unique location that allows the company to utilize the various transportation methods to ship the products.
"We are at a prime place on the riverfront where the river and the rails meet, and we want to exploit that," Humphreys said.
The jobs at the site will be to load and unload the coils. Forklift operators, crane operators, truck drivers and other laborers will be needed.
According to Belmont County Port Authority Director Larry Merry, the payroll for the operation will be about $2.5 million, which should generate about $25,000 annually for Bellaire in tax revenue, not including the potential spin-off from the creation of new jobs pumping money into the local economy.
Both Merry and Humphreys said the operation also could attract more businesses to the area, not only in Bellaire but places such as the new industrial park in Barnesville.
"It's almost like infrastructure," Merry said. "It is going to cause other businesses to grow and other businesses to relocate to this region because of the availability to move products off of rail, onto the river.
"We've heard a lot of people talk about how we have the highway and the river, but they've never used it in this combination. This brings it all into play. Once this thing gets off the ground, it will have a phenomenal impact on the region."