Youngstown council moves ahead with $13.2M Exterran facility

YOUNGSTOWN — Safety is always an issue with industrial plants, but city officials aren’t more concerned about Exterran Energy Solutions’ proposed $13.2 million natural-gas compression manufacturing facility than normal.

In May 2007, a worker at a Texas plant, engineered and designed by Exterran, then known as Hanover Compression, died after an explosion at the facility.

A jury awarded $82.5 million in damages to his family in June 2010 after finding Hanover was grossly negligent for the death, according to an article in the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth, Texas.

Members of Youngstown City Council and the city administration said today there is a big difference between that natural-gas processing facility in Texas and the proposed fabricating operation here.

Council approved legislation today authorizing the city’s board of control to give a 20-acre site on Salt Springs Road and a tax abatement to Exterran for a $13.2 million project.

The board of control is expected to approve giving the company the land and the tax abatement Thursday.

For the complete story, read Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com