Arsenal on track to be site of plant

72 full-time jobs part of proposal

As many as 72 jobs stand to be created at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in White Hall as a Texas-based company that makes biological and chemical protective suits for the military plans to open a new plant.

Many of the jobs would be for those with disabilities, White Hall Mayor Noel Foster said Wednesday.

“It’s a great opportunity to get more missions at the arsenal and more great jobs for those with disabilities while also creating readiness for our soldiers,” Foster said.

The Economic Development Corp. of Jefferson County voted Tuesday to provide $490,260 in incentive funds to ReadyOne Industries, a nonprofit in El Paso, Texas, for its expansion into the Pine Bluff Arsenal, an Army facility that opened in 1941 and eventually housed a large portion of the nation’s chemical and biological warfare stocks.

The money comes from a countywide three-eighths percent sales-tax increase approved by Jefferson County voters in 2011 to promote economic development. Collection of the tax had a sunset clause, forcing its expiration in 2018.

The Pine Bluff Commercial first reported the news about ReadyOne on Wednesday.

The proposed incentive package calls for the creation of 72 full-time jobs within five years with an average hourly wage of $12.22, the newspaper said. ReadyOne will receive

$6,750 for each job created and anticipates spending $283,500 for equipment and on renovations, the newspaper said.

Melissa Offutt, a spokesman for ReadyOne Industries, said Wednesday that work on its contract with the federal government isn’t yet complete but that the company expects to make a formal announcement within a week.

“It’s taken a lot of work and cooperation to get something like this accomplished,” Foster said, praising local and Jefferson County officials, the U.S. Army, the state’s congressional delegation and ReadyOne officials.

Foster said the ReadyOne project is part of the military’s effort to expand public-private partnerships under the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.

The Arsenal Sentinel, the installation’s monthly newspaper, reported generally on ReadyOne’s plans in its Sept. 12 edition. The newspaper also said the arsenal is working with another company, Design West, to help in the production of large filters used in the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile system.