KENTUCKY (From news reports) -- Ahlstrom-Munksjö, a fiber-based materials manufacturer officially began expansion to their Madisonville facility last week, a project which is expected to create 51 new, well-paying jobs, reportedly coming in at $35 per hour, on average. Those jobs are expected to begin in mid-2023.

According to Madisonville-Hopkins County Economic Development President, Ray Hagerman, this is a $70 million dollar investment, which will bring multiple benefits to Hopkins County.

"This investment will be using city utilities, giving more tax benefits to the city and county, and more benefits to the community just by simply having a project of this size being added to our local equation."

There will be 51 direct jobs created within the company, with another 90 indirect jobs and roughly 90 induced jobs. Indirect jobs are created to take on the payroll from the 51 people. These are people who spend their money locally, which in turn causes induced jobs, such at grocery store workers, because there are more people sending more money, which provides funding for additional jobs to be created. So with the direct, indirect and induced jobs, its estimated that there will actually be 231 new jobs created in Hopkins County once this project is all said and done.

"The fiber glass industry does have a high multiple of additional jobs created just by the nature of what it does. We are pretty excited about it, it is a state-of-the-art type facility, there is not another like it in the US. This is the newest and brightest, most up to date equipment of its kind. We are moving into the advancement manufacturing world here in Madisonville," Hagerman said.

Hagerman shared that Madisonville had to compete hard to get this done here, as the project could have gone to Illinois, Connecticut or Wisconsin. In the end, one of the main selling points was due to the better location and the ability to build onto the already existing Ahlstrom facility.

Madisonville has a great location to ship all over the country, and Hopkins County was more than willing and wanting to step up locally to make this happen. Building something like this is not easy. It will take roughly 18-20 months of construction and ramp up time, and it will probably be two years before full time workers will be in there.

"We are super excited to have them choose to be here. The good news is that people who are already here know the lay of the land, and you develop a good relationship with these people and when they do a ramp up like this, it means more than if you brought in somebody new."

The Madisonville location, currently employs 133 team members. The new fiber glass tissue production line will make luxury vinyl tiles and sheet materials, and are slated to be fully completed by summer 2023.

Construction of the new addition to the plant will be handled by west Kentucky-based Scott, Murphy and Daniel Construction.

"We are happy to be part of the Madisonville plant growth," said Danny Daniel, President from Scott, Murphy and Daniel. "The collaboration with Ahlstrom-Munksjö on the new saturator line expansion in 2017-2018 for the existing plant was a great start for the partnership in construction."