City of Marshall getting $1.7 million infrastructure grant to boost Arkansas manufacturing jobs

MARSHALL, Ark. – Local officials in a rural Arkansas town said the are excited to receive a $1.7 million federal infrastructure grant designed to help create manufacturing jobs.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Tuesday that Searcy County would receive the grant to renovate an existing building in Marshall to be used as a frozen food manufacturing facility.

Marshall Mayor Kevin Elliot said the grant would be used to renovate the county-owned former Flintrock Shirt Company building on Highway 65. The plant, which once employed hundreds, shut down in 2019.

Searcy County Chamber of Commerce director Darryl Treat said Ozark Food Group would use the building to manufacture pie shells and sandwiches to be resold by grocery stores. The plant is expected to bring 70-80 jobs into the city, something Treat said the city and county have needed for a long time.

Treat said that in addition to the shirt factory closing, a fiberglass company in the city closed about two years ago, the county lost its sale barn and a furniture manufacturer in the north part of the county recently closed.

“The Ozark Food Group is the best economic news we have received in a long time,” Treat said. “We need jobs."

Treat said the Tuesday announcement was the result of work not just by the Chamber of Commerce but by County Judge Tony Horton, Elliot and the Northwest Arkansas Development District.

“We owe the Northwest Arkansas Development District a lot of thanks for all the work they did for Searcy County to land this grant, as well as county government,” Treat said.

He explained that Horton was “very excited” about the news.

Building renovations will soon begin, with manufacturing expected to begin in 2025, Treat added.

from KARK https://ift.tt/cFC26ov