WASHINGTON — An infrastructure improvement grant from the U.S. Commerce Department is helping an Indiana plastics plant expand its product line and add jobs.
The $1.6 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration to the city of Madison, Ind., to upgrade five miles of light rail infrastructure will allow continued expansion of custom work at rotomolder Meese Orbitron Dunne Co. (MOD).
That investment will allow MOD to ship bigger loads both in and out.
“I think that people often don't look at the importance of infrastructure for keeping jobs and creating jobs. This upgrade will allow us to bring in pellets by rail as opposed to bringing multiple bulk trucks with already-ground powder.” Less handling and in–house grind “allows us to be more competitive, and that all comes back to good infrastructure,” said President Bob Dunne.
MOD has already invested about $6 million in equipment and machinery at the facility, and maintains its own spur off the community-owned Madison Rail Road line for pellet delivery. The Madison plant is one of four U.S. manufacturing sites for Ashtabula, Ohio-based MOD.