Expansion at Adams site to bring more jobs, business to Sidney

Local business is booming.

Among the many millions of dollars worth of projects discussed at Tuesday's economic development meeting at Sidney's Holiday Inn were many upcoming changes and improvements at the Adams Industries site northwest of Sidney.

These projects include new site development, a rail expansion project, an increase to the Adams truck fleet and a new maintenance shop.

"We are excited to see this growth and we're excited to see what this will bring to the community," said Sabra Peetz, public relations specialist at Adams Industries.

The Adams site was developed with extra space and infrastructure for manufacturers and service providers to build on site. Adams own around 150 acres available for additional business growth. Bell Pole and Lumber, which is currently in construction, sits on about 40 acres. Bell is building a utility pole treatment facility on the Adams site. The Adams Industries warehouse division installed a rail spur in connection with its current rail system on the Bell site, which will allow them to provide Bell with both rail and trucking services.

"Bell plans to be up and running by the first quarter of 2014," Peetz said.

Bell Pole and Lumber anticipates an initial hire of 35 employees.

The Bell project would not have been possible without help from the village of Potter, said city manager Gary Person. The village of Potter assisted in obtaining some rural development grants for the project that were not available to the city of Sidney. The fruition of Adams Industries' upcoming rail expansion project was also a collaborative effort between many area entities.

"We've had success partnering with the city of Sidney, Cheyenne County and the village of Potter to encourage rural economic development," Peetz said.

There are currently around 27,000 feet of rail on the Adams site. The expansion will add around 40,000 more feet of rail. Right now a large portion of the rail runs through Adams' major business area, causing a lot of congestion. Adams has access to both Union Pacific and Burlington Northern railroads, so a large number of cars come through the area. Managing congestion will be easier with more rail space, because Adams will have a larger area to store cars if needed. Adams expects to see 7,000 cars coming through its facility in the next year.

This rail project will create a minimum of 25 new jobs the in the next two years. Adams also anticipates growing its truck fleet in the next year with hopes to add 10 company drivers and 10 owner/operators. A new 65,000 square foot truck and maintenance shop will help the business to manage the new truck fleet.

"It's really gonna be a state of the art shop, meaning that it's gonna be energy efficient," Peetz said. "It will have reclaim services for oil and fluids and various other things to make it environmentally friendly."

Adams Industries started out in 1987 as Adams and Sons Trucking and has now grown to encompass various industries.