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Chemical firm brings new plant to Hancock
By BILL GAUDET
SUN CORRESPONDENT
The president of Borg-Warner Chemicals announced Thursday that his company has chosen Hancock County's Port Bienville Industrial Park for a major plant, ending the firm’s four-year search for an expansion site in the Sunbelt.
Leonard A. Harvey told officials of Bay St. Louis and Waveland and business leaders from Hancock and Harrison counties that the firm's initial plans call for a $50 million chemical plant.
The plant will be located on a 205-acre plot in the industrial park, Harvey said. During the past four years, Borg-Warner has spent over $200,000 in option money for the site.
Harvey, the president of Borg-Warner’s chemicals division headquartered in Parkersburg, W.V., emphasized that the chemical plant was just the beginning.
At a press conference before Thursday's luncheon meeting, Harvey predicted that within a 10-year period, “our plant will expand two and one
half times over what it will be when we initially start operations in 1982."
The plant initially will employ 100 persons in the actual operation, which will produce a plastic commonly called ABS. This product is widely used by such firms as Sunbeam, American Telephone and Telegraph, Ford, American Motors Corporation, Chrysler, General Motors, General Electric, Black and Decker, and Hoover.
Harvey said construction should start late this year or early next year and would last about 30 months. About 400 workers will be employed during the construction period.
He stressed that his company has "a totally nonunion work force in an industry which historically has been highly unionized. One of the strengths of our company is continuity of people at all levels.
“Many of our employees have been with us 20 years and they and their families have grown with Borg-Warner Chemicals," he said.
Harvey said the availability of quality workers
in the area was one of the prime factors in selecting Hancock County. He also praised the county supervisors, executive director of the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission Wilson Webre, and all members of the commission. He classified all of them as “dedicated individuals and an asset to your county and state.”
Pete Walley, director of the state's Fuel and Energy Management Commission, represented Gov. Cliff Finch at the meeting. He said the governor considers Borg-Warner a blue chip firm, and extended an invitation to Harvey from Finch to be his guest at the governor's mansion in Jackson.
Cecil Dubuisson, a member of the staff of Rep. Trent Lott, R-Miss., offered the congressman’s services to the company.
Borg-Warner Chemicals is a division of Borg-Warner Corp., a $2.5 billion conglomerate headquartered in Chicago.