RICHMOND, Ohio - Heavy Duty Industrial is expanding its work force for the second time since its Jefferson County operations center debuted seven months ago.
Owner Rick Glass said he'll be adding "10 or 20 people" at his Richmond location, even as he gears up for what he hopes will be a major new business initiative - supplying the oil industry with fresh fracking and drilling water drawn from a 4.5-acre pond on a 26-acre property he's purchasing in the Youngstown area. The pond "butts up to the Mahoning River," he said, adding he already has the permits he'll need to do it in hand.
"For us, it can be very big," he said. "I don't know of any other contractor in the hauling business that owns their own property and can supply the water for them."
Glass said he's "trying to look ahead of the game a little bit." As with any new venture, he admits there's risk involved, "but I know there's going to be a demand. They're going to need water. I'm going to be one of the ones that will be able to offer it to them while they're moving into that area. I'll have competition, but I think we'll have an edge on them."
In Richmond, he said he's already interviewing applicants for the positions he's adding. Glass originally planned to have up to 50 employees on the job locally by year's end, but they passed that benchmark months ahead of schedule in June. The new hires will push his Jefferson County operations well beyond that.
"We're growing pretty good here," he said, adding he's impressed with the quality and skillsets of his current crop of applicants - a list he said includes highly qualified individuals, both hourly and management, who had previously been employed in the steel industry.
"The goal is to try and employ, between Marietta, Steubenville and Youngstown (sites), as many people as possible, to try and do as much business as possible before the drilling stops," Glass said.
Glass figures to hire "at least 20 or 30 employees to start out" for the Youngstown expansion and said he's also considering opening an operations center in the Waynesburg, Pa., area.
(Harris can be contacted at lharris@heraldstaronline.com)
