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Trumbull officials discuss sale of RG Steel
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The proposed sale of the Warren operations of RG Steel to C.J. Betters Enterprises of Monaca, Pa., is “of great concern to the families” of the mill’s 1,200 employees, Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka said Tuesday.
“I talked with probably 20 families that are really uptight and upset about it,” Polivka said of people he met at last weekend’s Italian-American Festival downtown.
Polivka said he and his fellow commissioners would like to have a conference call with Charles J. Betters, CEO of C.J. Betters Enterprises, to offer to help to keep the mill open.
The commissioners are expected to pass a resolution today to that effect.
“The board of Trumbull County commissioners welcome and support Mr. Betters’ efforts to develop a plan to reopen this facility and ultimately call some furloughed workers back to work,” the resolution says.
“The board of commissioners is willing to assist Mr. Betters’ efforts to reopen this facility and look forward to working together in the very near future.”
Commissioner Frank Fuda added, “Whatever we can do to make sure the plant reopens, we’re going to do.”
Fuda said if C.J. Betters is successful in acquiring the mill for the bid price of $17 million, that will be a very good deal for Betters, because the mineral rights on the hundreds of acres of the mill’s land could be worth quite a few million alone.
“I was surprised it went for $17 million,” Fuda said.
Mark Zigmont, economic development coordinator at the Trumbull County Planning Commission, said he believes other companies would have offered a bid on the mill if they’d known the highest bid was going to be $17 million.
Betters has vowed to look at the possibility of restarting the mill.
“We’re going to do everything we can to bring that plant back to life,” he said. “We’re going to need time and cooperation.”
C.J. Betters and its Bet-Tech Construction Co. have worked with the DeGeronimo Companies to carry out a number of industrial demolition projects, according to the DeGeronimo website.
Bet-Tech and DeGeronimo have worked on demolitions over the past seven years in Aliquippa, Beaver Falls, Butler and Somerset, Pa., and Springfield, Akron, Toronto, and Lorain, Ohio, DeGeronimo says.