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Workhorse ceremony makes arrival
official
LCC opens new training center for
machinists
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By Lee Raynor, Editor
Posted: 10:15 PM EST Wednesday December 07, 2005
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Regional
leaders and local officials celebrated the ceremonial opening Wednesday of the
new Workhorse Aviation manufacturing plant at the Global TransPark and marked
the opening of Lenoir Community College's Advanced Machining Center.
Workhouse,
which incorporated in 2003 in Delaware, announced in February that it would open
its plant at the GTP. The company received a $100,000 grant from the One North
Carolina Fund, $250,000 from Golden LEAF Foundation and expects to invest nearly
$2 million of its own money in the operation. As many as 50 jobs are expected to
be created over the next three years paying $20 an hour. Workhorse is leasing an
existing building at the GTP.
Workhorse will
manufacture structural parts for older military aircraft and for passenger and
cargo planes.
LCC set up the machining center with help from a
$1.9 million Golden LEAF grant. The center will train new workers for Workhorse.
Golden LEAF receives its money from the national tobacco settlement. The money
is to be used to shore up the economy of tobacco dependent counties harmed by
the downturn in tobacco farming.
Workhorse got off to a rocky start in Eastern
North Carolina. On Dec. 3, 2004, only hours before constructions bids were to be
opened, Workhorse cancelled its plans to set up at Trenton Industrial Park in
Jones County. Workhorse was to build and finance its own building in the park,
but then asked Jones County to provide funding. County officials there estimated
they had spent $70,000 in legal and engineering fees to bring in Workhorse.
Scarcely one month later, the company announced it would move to the GTP.
“We found out they were looking when other counties started
calling us. We do not know what their problem was,” Jones County Economic
Development consultant Roy Fogel told The Jones Post. “They told us they only
had $85,000 to bring to the table, but we put together $2.1 million financial
package for them. We were going to let them use $400,000 in grants that we were
securing to leverage other money for working capital and
inventory.” |
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