Big wins for Clay’s economic development – Niagara and IKO could bring over 300 jobs

BY DAN HILDEBRAN

ClayCivic.com Publisher

The president of Clay County’s economic development corporation reviewed two of the county’s recent wins in attracting jobs to the area.

Crawford Powell told the Republican Men of Clay during the club’s June 21 meeting that the Niagara water bottling plant next to State Road 23 and the proposed IKO constructions materials facility west of Clay Hill could eventually bring over 300 total jobs to the county.

He added that the water bottling plant has already doubled its initial estimate of new jobs. He said Niagara’s 825,000-square-foot building is more than double the company’s original plans.

Powell also emphasized that both enterprises are family-owned and bring high wages with generous benefits. He said that when Niagara needed additional workers after hiring its first wave of employees, it relied on its new hires to recruit more staff.

“After they did their initial hiring where they used the Career Source folks to help them, they have not had to go outside of Niagara employees to get additional people to come to work for them,” he said. “It was like: Hey, we’ve got job openings, tell your buddy, and they (did all the subsequent hiring) internally. They’ve never gone outside after they hired that initial corps of people.”

Powell said the Canada-based IKO would offer average wages of $65,000 annually. He claimed the construction materials manufacturer offers benefits packages that exceed those offered to federal employees.

“This is a generational opportunity.,” he said. “This is a chance where you might have a father and a son, but you could have multiple generations working at an operation like this.”