By By Paul Keane
Publisher
Things are progressing nicely at the new location for Muskogee Metalworks, with possible production at the facility beginning sometime in the spring.
Mal McGhee, general manager of the plant, said the transition from the current location to the former Vanity Fair building is moving along, but that the natural workload of filling contracts has slowed some things down.
"Things aren't going as fast as I would have hoped they would go, but we are making progress," McGhee said. "We're still having to fill contracts that we have going, so that is slowing down some of the transition."
McGhee originally said that as contracts were filled and a break could be taken by a department, then that department would move to the new location. Those plans are still in place, with some departments expected to begin the process of moving sometime in February.
"Everything is still on schedule," McGhee said. "We've ordered some new equipment that should arrive later this month, we've made most of the adjustments to the building that we needed to make, and we are on schedule to start moving things in the near future.
"I had originally said that I wanted to try and have things in place by the end of January to start moving. More realistically, it looks like we will be fully operational here by the end of February.
"If we have everything moved and in place, we could be producing goods from the new facility by early March."
McGhee said there are no immediate plans to expand the workforce, but that he has received several inquiries over the past few months about Muskogee Metalworks and the potential of the local company filling contracts for major corporations and companies.