NEW CASTLE Concreteplant will get city loan

City officials say they expect as many as 35 jobs.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A Philadelphia company locating a plant here will get a $200,000 low-interest loan.
"This is one of the most credit-worthy applications we have seen," city administrator John DiMuccio told council members at a caucus Tuesday.
Council will approve the loan at its meeting Thursday.
Mayor Timothy Fulkerson expects the company to expand and eventually create as many as 35 jobs.
Faddis Concrete Products applied for the city Enterprise Zone loan to help pay for $600,000 worth of equipment it will need to start its operation on West Washington Street. Faddis is leasing the building, which recently housed metal fabricators Shell Perkins.
Awarded contract: The company has been awarded a $2.5 million Ohio Department of Transportation contract to build sound-absorbing and sound-reflecting walls for the Cleveland area.
Don Cooper, chief executive officer, said the company wanted to expand to a site closer to the project to cut its transportation costs.
Cooper said the company initially plans to hire about 15 people who are experienced in pouring concrete, welding, fabricating and operating cranes and forklifts.
Faddis has orders for several other projects in Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania that will be manufactured in New Castle, he said.
The city stands to earn about $15,000 on the five-year loan.