The Vigo County Council heard Wednesday evening from executives with ZINKPOWER, which has devised a process that prevents steel from rusting and plans to move into a parcel of land adjacent to Great Dane Trailers off North 13th Street.
Wednesday’s meeting was a sunshine session, meaning that council members did not vote for any item on the agenda.
They did vote to authorize a resolution sought by attorney Michael Wright on behalf of Superior Court III Judge Sarah Mullican. That resolution supports a seventh superior court in the county when the measure goes before the Indiana legislature.
Of Indiana’s 92 counties, Vigo’s courts are the third busiest in the state, Wright said. An additional court would better serve the needs of the county’s citizens. The council members present voted unanimously to support the resolution. Members Aaron Loudermilk and David Thompson were absent.
ZINKPOWER executives are applying to have their new property declared an economic revitalization area in order to eventually apply for a tax abatement. The project would involve building a $25.7 million plant and equipping it with $21.5 million in machines that create the hot-dip galvanizing process that prevents steel corrosion. Building the plant would create 100 construction jobs, as well as an additional 90 permanent full-time jobs paying $5.4 million annually in salaries. ZINKPOWER ’s employees would predominantly consist of workers earning between $18.50 and $25 an hour.
It would be ZINKPOWER ’s fourth plant in the United States, following facilities in Texas, Oregon and Wisconsin.
“We were invited here by Great Dane Trailers to co-locate with them and build this business,” Joe Langemeyer, executive vice president of ZINKPOWER , said in an interview.
“Because they are putting a significant effort into offering a hot dipped galvanized product to their customers and, quite frankly, the entire industry is going that way thanks to road deicer, which saves lives so it’s not going anywhere.” He added, “Owners of truck fleets across the country have had to figure out how to keep their product from rusting away so quickly. And hot-dip galvanizing has turned out in the last 15 years to be probably the most economical way to provide that corrosion protection,” he said.
Corrosion is a $1 billion problem annually, said ZINKPOWER CEO Tim Pendley, affecting everything from motor vehicles to bridges and other infrastructure. Hotdip galvanizing, he added, is an environmentally friendly process that produces no fumes, smells or liquids that leave the facility.
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