JOBS, PAY PROSPECTS

The company has provided state officials with projections of 216 jobs by 2010 and up to 300 jobs by 2012, Kurtz said.

Entry-level jobs are expected to pay between $12 and $18 an hour.

“They have told us their employees are the key to their success and to the quality of the buses they build,” she said.

The company will work with Multina’s Plattsburgh facility, Kurtz said. That company supplies the firm with bus seats in Canada and will do so here, she said.

The company intends to take a 25-to-30-acre parcel of land north of the UPS building; the lot reaches to Route 374, Kurtz said.

TRAFFIC STUDY

An update to The Development Corporation’s 2004 traffic study for the Industrial Park is under way, and the first part shows there would be less traffic with the bus assembly plant than if multiple facilities were built on the property.

The second part of the study is yet incomplete; it will examine traffic impacts on the major intersections in the surrounding area.

The public hearing was held to proceed toward rezoning a 9.4-acre parcel of land, which The Development Corporation has agreed to purchase from Edith and Walter Banker, from Neighborhood Commercial to Industrial Park. That parcel would then be merged with the Banker Road Industrial Park.

PLANNING OK NEEDED

The project still needs approval from the Plattsburgh Town Planning Board. That would take a minimum of two months.

Plattsburgh Town Supervisor Bernie Bassett said the aggressive time line is good, especially in light of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s recent budget adjustment. That and the unsteady economic outlook have clear implications on state and federal funding availability in the future, he said.