STATE WILL HELP BUILD NEW ROAD
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 -- 1:05 PM
A new road for Neillsville's Industrial Park may foreshadow more growth.Governor Jim Doyle presented Neillsville mayor Diane Murphy with a $300,000 check to build a new road on the Industrial Park's east side.
The road will be named "OEM Avenue", and will allow Neillsville's newest manufacturer to more easily get products in and out of their state-of-the-art fabricating facility.
OEM CEO Mark Tyler was on hand. The company opened its Neillsville facility last summer and already employs over 120 here.
The markets have been challenging, but Tyler noted OEM has been exporting products while other companies have been exporting jobs.
"Last month, we shipped $1.52-million of product, nearly 50-percent of that product is designated for export," Tyler said, "I should add that much of that is going to Mexico and some of it is going to China."
Gov. Doyle said the $300,000 comes in the form of a Transportation Economic Assistance?or TEA?Grant. The funding is earmarked for projects that help create jobs.
"We understand this is a tough economy we're in right now, but our answer can't be, 'we're going to climb into bed and pull the covers over our head and hope nothing else happens," Doyle said, "Our answer has to be that we're really going to move forward and make strong investment in this state in the things that really make a difference."
The city will match the $300,000 and hopes to complete the 950-foot road by this fall. It will run from USH 10 near the OEM facility, to the northern border of the Industrial Park.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.