Another chance for a Mason County factory

By the end of this month, a factory near the town of New Haven in Mason County, W.Va., could be back in production soon. Felman Production of Ukraine has purchased the former Highlander Alloys plant for about $20 million in January and plans to ship product by the ened of this month. The plant makes ferralloys for the steelmaking industry.

Gov. Joe Manchin said last week that the company plans to employ 220 people by the end of next year.

According to the AP, the plant is only 54 years old, but to these eyes it looks older. Keeping it afloat has taken a lot of effort by a lot of people over a lot of years. The most recent setback was a fire about a year ago that damaged the plant's electric arc furnaces.

The plant sits in a corridor that has two coal-fired power plants, a hydroelectric power plant and the aluminum-making complex near Ravenswood, W.Va. If AEP builds one or two new power plants in that area in the next few years, the corridor could provide a lot of good-paying blue-collar jobs.