For the second time in nine months, the Greater Montgomery County Economic Development Council and the Montgomery County Commission held an open house at Montgomery County Middle School to inform the county citizens, property owners and other stakeholders of the plans of creating a mega-site industrial park.

The Montgomery County Community Open House was held at the school’s multipurpose building on Sept. 5. More than 150 people attended the event, tripling the attendance of 30 people who came to the first meeting on Dec. 7, which was also held at MCMS. Steve Etcher, a consultant for the GMCEDC, and Presiding Commissioner Ryan Poston were the speakers.

M&H Architects, a firm based in St. Louis, was hired to develop the master plan of the park. Numerous employees were in attendance and answered questions from the participants after the presentation.

One of the employees, Justin Bruce, presented a video of the industrial park, which took about three months to make. The park will be built along the Highway 19/Interstate 70 corridor in New Florence and will be split into different quadrants — Renewables Park, Logistics Campus, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) Campus and Future Campus.

Bruce, who works as a principal at M&H Architects, said all four areas are different. The OEM site is intended to house more large-scale manufacturing, the Logistics site is where the things that are being manufactured are being distributed, the Renewables Park focuses on renewable energy and solar and Future Campus represents the expansion of the park.

“We really lean to MarksNelson and Steve Etcher, who really have a good understanding of what the market demands are,” Bruce said. “They kind of lean towards his (Etcher) expertise to say these are the kind of uses they are looking for sites to develop.”

Etcher said the mega-site park is needed so it could create more jobs for Montgomery County.

“I’m trying to create a vibrant future for your community. I do this job because I care about this community,” Etcher said. “I want rural Missouri to prosper long after I’m gone. I want positive things to happen in this community which we call home. I lived here for four decades. It’s the ideal location. I want others to be able to experience the opportunities that I had.”

Etcher said the Interstate 70 and Highway 19 corridor is the suitable place for the mega-site park to be built because it will have immediate access to I-70, Norfolk Southern’s mainline railway and gas pipelines.
“We need hundreds, if not thousands, of acres to prepare for that growth,” Etcher said. “The mega site is to create the blueprint to allow that growth back to the economy. We believe this would put not only Montgomery County in a very competitive position, but it would also directly make Missouri a very competitive state.”

Poston, a 1995 Montgomery County High School graduate, pointed out that the county’s population has decreased from the last 30 years. He said he hopes the park will help boost the population.

“We’re losing the kids,” Poston said. “We’re an aging population. All I can say when you start looking at these plans (of the park) is all of this is a big vision. It’s an idea. It’s a plan.”