Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 29, 1993 TAG: 9305290139
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Gov. Douglas Wilder, just back from a visit to Africa, is scheduled to come to Botetourt for a Wednesday morning announcement that the plant is moving to Troutville.
"We've got a deal," Gil Gardner, president of Connex, said Friday after lengthy negotiations for a Troutville building owned by Tuna Associates, a company composed of members of the C.M. Oakey family.
Gardner said Connex has "a few more hurdles to cross, but we're 99 percent sure" of making the move. Details of Connex's operation in Botetourt County were not available Friday.
The company acknowledged in February it was seeking a move to the Roanoke area after an impasse in negotiations with the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union's Local 168 in Marietta. A union official said the company had asked for a pay reduction to about $12.70 an hour, a level in the top range of factory pay in the Roanoke area.
In addition to moving jobs from Marietta, the company has considered consolidating its plant at Pineville, N.C., near Charlotte, into the Troutville operation.
Connex has received an air-pollution permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for operation of a miscellaneous metal parts and products coating plant at Troutville. Initially, the state's Roanoke air-pollution control branch was concerned about Connex's use of zinc in spraying, but the agency decided the company will use an efficient filter.
There have been extensive negotiations with the Oakeys this spring. The structure, on about 50 acres, was owned by RIB Detention Equipment Corp., a successor to the prison equipment business of the former Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works. Oakey family members were principals in both firms, both of which were closed in bankruptcy proceedings.
by CNB