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Gov. Jay Nixon toured Houston PolyTank in Hopkins Monday as part of a swing through western Missouri designed to introduce new initiatives designed to create jobs and "market Missouri to the world."
Called Missouri Works, the battery of proposals includes plans for setting up an online information center for Missouri businesses seeking to expand exports and calls for opening export offices in Asia and South America.
Other components include state funding for job training, including a program that would help military veterans by reimbursing employers for a portion of new workers' salaries.
Nixon also wants $4 million to fund the Missouri Science and Innovation Act, which would create incentives for science and technology companies.
By stopping off in Hopkins after plugging Missouri Works earlier in the day at an automotive seating plant in Excelsior Springs, the governor hoped to underscore the need to "train more workers for high-tech careers" at a company that has created a manufacturing technology success story in Nodaway County over the past 18 months.
In business for about a year, Houston PolyTank is a joint venture between partners Ron Houston, owner of J.L. Houston Co., which manufactures steel tanks just a few dozen yards away from the new facility, and Ron Elkana, an Israeli engineer who has developed plastic tank manufacturing techniques pioneered in Germany.
During introductory remarks before Nixon spoke, Houston said the company currently makes the largest plastic tanks in North America using a propriety process that extrudes polypropylene or polyethylene over a heated drum mold.
Since beginning production, the plant, which employs about nine people, has manufactured around 60 tanks. The largest so far has a capacity of 20,000 gallons. Houston said the payroll could ultimately grow as high as 20 workers.
PolyTank plant manager Jason Anderson said the largest tank the facility can make would hold 50,000 gallons, and that the company is currently processing a single order for 80 tanks ranging in size from 20,000 gallons to 40,000 gallons.
The tanks have applications in the chemical, agriculture, food processing and water treatment industries, and the process is also used to manufacture pipe. Made in a variety of thicknesses and configurations the tanks can be designed to withstand high temperatures and to hold every thing from corrosive acids to drinking water.
Nixon said his administration had approved $40,000 in training assistance for Houston PolyTank over the last six months.
He called for "continued investment" in worker training, especially in computers and other tech skills, and said increasing spending last year on the state's Customized Training Program "provided opportunities for 35,669 Missourians at 310 different businesses."
Nixon claimed Missouri added 10,900 new manufacturing jobs in the first 11 months of 2011, and said unemployment statewide is now at its lowest point in nearly three years.
Gov. Jay Nixon toured Houston PolyTank in Hopkins Monday as part of a swing through western Missouri designed to introduce new initiatives designed to create jobs and "market Missouri to the world."
Called Missouri Works, the battery of proposals includes plans for setting up an online information center for Missouri businesses seeking to expand exports and calls for opening export offices in Asia and South America.
Other components include state funding for job training, including a program that would help military veterans by reimbursing employers for a portion of new workers' salaries.
Nixon also wants $4 million to fund the Missouri Science and Innovation Act, which would create incentives for science and technology companies.
By stopping off in Hopkins after plugging Missouri Works earlier in the day at an automotive seating plant in Excelsior Springs, the governor hoped to underscore the need to "train more workers for high-tech careers" at a company that has created a manufacturing technology success story in Nodaway County over the past 18 months.
In business for about a year, Houston PolyTank is a joint venture between partners Ron Houston, owner of J.L. Houston Co., which manufactures steel tanks just a few dozen yards away from the new facility, and Ron Elkana, an Israeli engineer who has developed plastic tank manufacturing techniques pioneered in Germany.
During introductory remarks before Nixon spoke, Houston said the company currently makes the largest plastic tanks in North America using a propriety process that extrudes polypropylene or polyethylene over a heated drum mold.
Since beginning production, the plant, which employs about nine people, has manufactured around 60 tanks. The largest so far has a capacity of 20,000 gallons. Houston said the payroll could ultimately grow as high as 20 workers.
PolyTank plant manager Jason Anderson said the largest tank the facility can make would hold 50,000 gallons, and that the company is currently processing a single order for 80 tanks ranging in size from 20,000 gallons to 40,000 gallons.
The tanks have applications in the chemical, agriculture, food processing and water treatment industries, and the process is also used to manufacture pipe. Made in a variety of thicknesses and configurations the tanks can be designed to withstand high temperatures and to hold every thing from corrosive acids to drinking water.
Nixon said his administration had approved $40,000 in training assistance for Houston PolyTank over the last six months.
He called for "continued investment" in worker training, especially in computers and other tech skills, and said increasing spending last year on the state's Customized Training Program "provided opportunities for 35,669 Missourians at 310 different businesses."
Nixon claimed Missouri added 10,900 new manufacturing jobs in the first 11 months of 2011, and said unemployment statewide is now at its lowest point in nearly three years.
