In The News

A year after production began at the $13 million Infra-Metals plant in New Boston, U.S. Representative Brad Wenstrup (R-2) paid employees a visit on Friday afternoon.


“Today we’re going to see how this has all come together,” Wenstrup told the Daily Times. “There has been a lot of outside interest to bring them here inside the area and I’m glad to have them here. So we’re going to see how things are up and running and how they progressed.”


Wenstrup said having an industrial operation like Infra-Metals in New Boston is important to this area.


“It is tremendous,” Wenstrup said. “You know where we rank probably as far as employment in this area, so it’s great. What I have seen in the Portsmouth area is individuals and groups interested in economic development really pulling together to try and make an effort collectively, rather than people going in different directions. And I think we’re going to continue to see great things. I think this area has one of the greatest potentials, being on this river, and I expect we’ll see more river traffic over the years as the Panama Canal expands and we’re going to try to promote that.”


Wenstrup also took the opportunity to speak about the recent funding for two major projects at the Piketon Department of Energy (DOE) reservation. The recently-passed appropriations bill provided $97.2 million for the American Centrifuge Project and $78 million for the Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) project operated by Fluor-B&W cancelling layoffs at the plant.


“Those were important things obviously for our area to keep that going,” Wenstrup said. “There has been some battles along the way. It looks like we’ve got everything going in through next year as far as the cleanup and Centrus, as it’s now called, is up and running too. There’s going to be continuing battles all along the way and I think the cleanup site is something we’re going to be battling for every year. but we will continue to do so because that area has tremendous potential. But we’ve got to get it cleaned up to be able to turn the tide.”

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