Here's one that station news hounds might look into

[CoolBreeze]

Tonight (Sat Oct 3) I saw 5 "unusual" looking younger people walking down Capitol St.

They had parked in Spyros lot (where I was standing) and as they paid for their parking, I recognized their language as being some sort of Russian. So I asked a guy where they were from. He said "the Ukraine". I asked what in the world were they doing here. He said they were working at the Ukraine-based Felman Production Alloys plant in New Haven. One guy lived in Evans, another in Ripley. (Not sure where the others lived).

I remember Gov. Manchins grand announcement (see below) of the sale of this plant and the jobs it would bring. Now I'm curious: As people in the Ukraine make less than half of what we do here.... wonder how many Ukrainians are working there now? I also wonder how much of our tax money went into this "Economic Development"?



Sept. 12, 2006

CHARLESTON, W.Va.-- Gov. Joe Manchin today announced that Ukraine-based Felman Production, Inc. will soon start production in its New Haven, W.Va., plant. This is the company's first U.S. operation.

"Felman Production has made an extraordinary contribution to Mason County and to West Virginia by purchasing and restoring the furnaces and structure of the former Highlander Alloys plant," the governor said. "We thank Felman Production for its investment and welcome the company to our community.

Felman Production, Inc. is a subdivision of the Group Privat, headquartered in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

The Mason County plant joins Group Privat's significant international alloy production assets, which include two ferroalloy factories in Ukraine, one in Romania, one in Poland and one in Russia. The group owns two manganese mines in Ukraine, as well as other plants active in the chemical, metallurgical, food, machine-building, oil-producing and oil-refining industries. Group Privat owns the largest commercial bank in the Ukraine, Privatbank.

Opened in 1951, the Highlander Alloys plant had been out of production since an October 2005 fire caused significant damage to the facility and its furnaces. In January 2006, Felman Production bought the assets of the plant for approximately $20 million and since then it has employed 135 people in reconstructing the facility and rebuilding the plant's electric arc furnaces. The plant will continue to produce ferroalloys, which are used in the metallurgical industry as a deoxidizer for producing high-quality steel.

Felman Production plans to employ 220 people by the end of 2007. The facility is located near the city of New Haven, adjacent to American Electric Power's Mountaineer Power Plant.

"From the very first days of being in West Virginia, the Governor and the Development Office gave us great support and help in organizing meetings with the appropriate state agencies, stakeholders, service providers and other partners who helped us during the process of reconstructing our plant," said Sergey Maximenko, the vice-chairman of Privat Intertrading Company and the chief of the ferroalloys division.

[fearpeddler]

The newshounds will never look into anything that might cause a real controversy, thats why we haven't heard any more about the charleston police officer who was mur... i mean accidentally shot before they mur... i mean subdued their perp fatally in retaliation.....