By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Several businesses that received economic incentives or other perks to locate in Rowan County are close to fulfilling their promise to create jobs.
Robert Van Geons, executive director for RowanWorks Economic Development, said many companies are hiring or about to begin. Tuscarora Yarn in China Grove received roughly 2,000 applications for 124 jobs the company pledged to create.
“They have spoken so highly of our workforce,” Van Geons told the RowanWorks Board of Directors this week.
Carl Ford, vice chairman of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners and liaison to the RowanWorks board, said he’s heard more positive feedback on Tuscarora than any other industrial recruitment project.
“These people worked in textiles all their life, and now they get to use those skills,” Ford said.
Also in China Grove, the new Altec facility is up and running with a $1.5 million investment and 15 new jobs, Van Geons said. The company even had its first fire alarm recently, he said.
In the next 30 to 45 days, Boral Composites in East Spencer will begin taking applications for 35 new jobs, Van Geons said. Infiltrator Systems at the Summit Corporate Center is nearly operational and will employ 33 people, he said.
Magna Composites in Salisbury plans to create more than 200 new jobs. The company is working with RowanWorks and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College to provide on-site training for current and potential employees, Van Geons said.
RCCC is pursuing a $250,000 Duke Energy grant to help establish a training program for Magna, said college President Dr. Carol Spalding, a member of the RowanWorks Board of Directors.
“Magna has very high expectations, and we think we can train people to reach those expectations,” she said.
The company has expressed some doubt, Spalding said. But Spalding and Van Geons said they are confident local people can be trained to fill the new jobs.
The Duke grant would create a new advanced manufacturing program for RCCC, Spalding said.
Henkel, located in a portion of the former National Starch and Chemical Co. plant off Cedar Springs Road, is meeting its 103-job pledge, and Norandal has filled nearly all of 25 new jobs in the company’s $7 million expansion in Salisbury, Van Geons said.