Industries weather winter

Despite a harsh winter that’s left Jay County buried under what seems like mountains of snow and brought days of sub-zero temperatures, area factories haven’t been affected too badly.
Officials from Moser Engineering and ATI Portland Forge said two major snow storms resulted in some employees not making it to work or coming in late, but production has stayed steady.
Bruce Hedges of Moser Engineering said employees there have done well getting into work on days when most other people stayed home.
And the company, which manufactures rear end components for racing applications, hasn’t seen a dip in production.
He said business has been a little slower because 30 states have been affected by the bad weather, but overall, there haven’t been too many problems.
On Wednesday truck lines weren’t running from Portland to Fort Wayne because of the weather, which may result in a delay for shipments reaching customers, but that seems to be the only problem.
Steve Barcus, vice president and general manager of ATI Portland Forge said there haven’t been any major problems caused by the weather for the company, which manufactures steel forgings.
He said the latest snow storm that dropped 10 inches of snow on Jay County Tuesday night wasn’t particularly bad.
“Surely speaking, the work force is pretty good about trying to get here if they can get here safely,” Barcus said.
The company has multiple buildings so snow removal can be the biggest hassle, Barcus said.
“We’ve just got a lot of things we have to clean up,” he said.
In early January when the county received 14 inches of snow and had subzero temperatures for a few days, the plant did have to shut down. Otherwise, the Forge has carried on.
“We’re weathering the storm, as they say,” Barcus said. “It’s more of a nuisance, I think, than really slowing us down.”[[In-content Ad]]