Ohio: Gallia County

Gallia County

Two momentous events in 1996 are sure to spark automotive industry interest in Gallia County in southeast Ohio's Appalachia region. The first is the 1996 announcement by Toyota that it would site a $400 million engine plant just across the Ohio River in West Virginia and just 15 miles from Gallipolis, Gallia's county seat. This places the county well within the just-in-time range for serving Toyota. If the experience of other areas close to major automotive facilities plays again, good locations like Gallia County stand to benefit handsomely from the spin-off of suppliers and subassemblers.

The second event was the recent groundbreaking for Gallia County's first industrial park, 214 acres of fully serviced sites.

It took strong public/private partnerships for the rural county to muster the funds necessary to build the industrial park. The fact that the Gallia County Commissioners and the Gallipolis City Commission kicked in $350,000 from local government coffers speaks volumes about the county's commitment to working with corporate America. Where some communities hold their hand out looking for a break, this community pledged its own local resources. The state of Ohio and the federal government are also participating in the project.

Borg Warner's 265 workers sinter, coat with graphite and forge a doughnut-shaped part. The end product goes into either a torque converter or an automatic transmission part in a transfer case. The advantage of the process is that it eliminates the tremendous amount of extra time and materials required by conventional machining.

Gallia County's most famous citizen is Bob Evans, the WWII-era restaurant owner who began making sausage from Gallia County hogs during the meat-rationing days of the 1940s. Today, the national restaurant chain that bears his name is a major player in Gallia County's economic future. Bob Evans Farms, Inc., now headed by Dan Evans, donated land and funds for the new industrial park. The Bob Evans Farms' sausage plant, adjacent to the park, will be expanded, creating 38 jobs and retaining 95.

The 1996 events ice what is already an attractive plant location picture. Strong highway infrastructure is in place with the four-lane, divided U.S. Route 35, which places Gallia County within a couple of hours of Columbus. U.S. 35 connects with the modern four-laned east-west Appalachian Highway in the heart of the county, thus putting Gallia County within 90 minutes of Cincinnati. The West Virginia portion of U.S. 35, which is currently being upgraded to four lanes, connects with I-64.

Access on top of an available work force makes Gallia County attractive from a variety of economic development perspectives.

The costs of living and doing business in the Ohio River county are significantly lower than in other areas of Ohio. Not only do the day-to-day costs of doing business make the county attractive, but state of Ohio incentives make it that much more appealing. Gallia County industry is eligible for the state's 13.5 percent Machinery and Equipment Tax Credit, almost double the amount available in many other parts of Ohio.

Gallia County already has a significant industrial base. Industrial citizens include Rockwell Automation (formerly Reliance Motion Controls), which employs 400. Four large utility plants, including AEP's River Transport Division, provide over 1,800 jobs and afford lower utility costs to industry. King Kutter -- a maker of farm implements -- recently acquired a 79,000 sq. ft. plant in Gallipolis.

Multinationals like the historic appeal of towns like Gallipolis, the county seat, and Rio Grande, seat of an excellent university.

In the automotive industry, Borg Warner supplies the Big 3 out of its 110,000-sq. ft. Gallia County location. The company uses powdered metallurgy to make components primarily for automotive drive train applications. A global company, Borg Warner parts are in every automobile nameplate in the world.

Borg Warner bought the former Federal Mogul plant to extend its growth potential. "Borg Warner is working toward supplying automatic transmission systems to the automotive builders, as compared to the individual components and taking a higher value added product to market," says Chuck Woods, human resource manager. The company is currently working on a project for Chrysler, where it is designing and building the first true system it will take to the customer.

Though Gallia County is not in a traditional automotive corridor, that has not impeded the company's ability to find qualified workers. "We have good services and a great labor force in Gallia County, " says Woods. "When we hire we look for the work ethic and for the education, training and skills that can be transferred to our application. We find in Galia County a lot of people who graduated from the University of Rio Grande in manufacturing and maintenance technologies, as well as a number of people who had been through Buckeye Hills Career Center training. These are the skills we want."

Industry can tap a deep pool of labor in southeast Ohio. While Gallia County's population is 31,000, there are 960,000 people within an easily accessible 50-mile radius. "If you count the West Virginia counties, there are between 50,000 and 55,000 unemployed and underemployed in this region," says R.V. "Buddy" Graham, executive director of the Gallia County Community Improvement Corp.

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