In April, CertainTeed Corporation, which has 60 plants across the nation, chose Jonesburg, Mo., to build an asphalt roofing shingle manufacturing and distribution facility.
The small town of Jonesburg, with just more than 700 residents, is receiving major help in developing the infrastructure to support the new facility
The White House announced in a press release that the U.S. Department of Commerce is giving $1.9 million to Jonesburg.
City Administrator Gerard Ritter said this grant will keep the project process running smoothly.
“I think it would’ve been a lot slower without the grant and it also would’ve been, like with our water interconnect with the local water district, would not have been able to take place at this time, at all,” Ritter said.
With the recent Missouri drought, Ritter stated interconnecting with another local utility on water is crucial. In addition to water lines, the grant will help pay for rail, sewer and roadway infrastructure to help with the construction of the 186-acre industrial and manufacturing plant.
Ritter said this project will have an unprecedented affect on the area in the long run.
“It’s probably one of the biggest impacts that’s ever been in this area…and it’s really something that I’ve never seen anything like it in this area and I don’t think too many people have,” Ritter said.
Ritter said the facility doesn’t just affect Jonesburg and Montgomery County, but Warren County as well because one of the two facilities will be in each county.
“I know that a lot of people would say, ‘Well it’s coming to Jonesburg’ and they just like to talk about just Jonesburg, but I think it was more of a community effort. Both counties worked together and the city, and I think the whole area is excited to have the extra jobs here,” Ritter said.
According to grantee estimates, the plant is expected to add 100 jobs and produce $100 million in private investment. Warrenton Mayor Jerry Dyer said this will keep people in the county.
“Sixty-seven percent of our workforce gets on the interstate everyday and heads east or leaves our community for employment. We’ve been trying to figure out a way for years how to retain some of those people…So, we think that’s gonna help with that aspect,” Dyer said.
Ritter said the distribution warehouse should be done either next spring or summer, and the manufacturing plant by the fall of 2015.