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Harrison County senator: Regional airport good example for future economic diversification

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — As the planned expansion of Bombardier’s services, hangar space, and work force increase over the next few years, state officials are hoping the work force of North Central West Virginia will be prepared to meet the newly projected job openings.

Appearing on Friday’s edition of WAJR’s Morgantown-AM with Dave Wilson, state Senator Mike Romano (D – 12, Harrison) said the jobs would be desirable.

“A bad job there, Dave, is $38,000 with benefits for anybody on that field,” Romano said.

Bombardier, which is expanding to enhance heavy maintenance, component repair, and overhaul support for the CRJ Series and Q Series aircrafts, is projected to add several hundred jobs when the expansion process is completed.

“It’s not only going to add to our employment numbers, but it’s also going to ensure that that aerospace industry continues to thrive and grow in North Central West Virginia, which everyone knows is so important,” Romano said.

Romano said that diversification is vital to helping the North Central region grow, which was part of the vision originally laid out by former West Virginia congressional representatives Alan Mollohan and Senator Robert C. Byrd decades ago.

“You guys up in Monongalia County — and really us to in North Central West Virginia — live a pretty charmed life because a lot of our state is really desperate for good paying jobs and jobs that our young people can go into if they are not going onto college,” he said.

Diversification, Romano said, can’t come any quicker for an area that — while not as affected by coal declines as some southern counties — needs to move onto an economy that is less reliant on the ebb and flow of the energy market.

“That’s why we got to quit being a mineral state,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re going to live and die on the ups and downs of the energy market. Our new Governor, Jim Justice, says it best. When coal was in its hayday, we were still 50th in an awful lot of categories.”

Bombardier originally employed just 25 people in Bridgeport, but that number has risen exponentially as the services at the North Central West Virginia airport have expanded. By 2018, Bombardier projects adding 150 new jobs.

“In the next five years, probably going to go up close to 1,000,” Romano said. “It’s a tremendous thing going on in North Central West Virginia, and it’s as important as any of our other sectors.”

While Romano emphasized his excitement over the opportunities that will come with the upcoming Bombardier expansion, he noted that West Virginia has a number of unique problems that aren’t going away.

“All we have to do is focus on the real issues that we’ve got to take care of in this state, and try to find industries that can use cheap energy and be able to use the topography that we have with mountains and hills and don’t need 1,000 flat acres,” he said. “Because we’re lucky to be able to give them 100 flat acres.”

Romano, a former Harrison County Commissioner, said the Bombardier expansion has been in the works for years.

“We started this Bombardier project when I first came onto the County Commission about seven years ago, now,” he said. “And things don’t move real fast.”

Senator Romano also sits on the North Central West Virginia Airport Authority.

The Bombardier expansion, announced last November, is expected to break ground this year.





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