Sinkhole forces company's move to Mt. Vernon

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Early in the new millennium, Jeff Marsh had a sinking feeling that he was going to have to relocate.|ret||ret||tab|

Marsh, president and owner of E.F. Marsh Engineering Company, recently moved the MARCO conveyor production plant from Monett to Mount Vernon after losing almost 35,000 square feet of the plant to a sinkhole.|ret||ret||tab|

The almost $7 million privately held company makes conveyors for processing dry, heavy bulk material, such as excavated rock. |ret||ret||tab|

The company's 50-plus em-ployees work in two locations: 14 handle engineering, sales and marketing in the firm's 10,000-square-foot St. Louis offices, and another 40-plus work in production at its new address in the Mt. Vernon Industrial Park. The new, $2.3 million plant began operations in April.|ret||ret||tab|

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On the move|ret||ret||tab|

Sometime between 1999 and 2000, employees first noticed part of the company's 1960-built, 80,000-square-foot building was slipping away. Sections of concrete floor were cracking and the building's western production area began inching toward the sinkhole. |ret||ret||tab|

Eventually, an entire corner of the building was torn down due to structural damage after $400,000 worth of remediation efforts to plug the sink with a high-compaction grout proved unsuccessful, said Marsh, who has headed the company since 1992. |ret||ret||tab|

In the end, Missouri's fragile topography won out. About 300 feet from the building's newly sided back wall, the depression drops almost nine feet below the plant's original floor, said John Rosenbalm, product manager.|ret||ret||tab|

The decision to move from Monett was not without regret, Marsh said, especially since much of his production force is from the immediate area. After deciding that remaining would be too costly, he considered other areas with industrial de-velopments, including Aurora, Cassville, Neosho and Mt. Vernon. |ret||ret||tab|

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Picking a city|ret||ret||tab|

The company was offered a "tremendous package" from Illinois, Marsh said. He kept operations in southwest Mis-souri, however, primarily due to receiving strong local financial support from firms like First State Bank of Purdy and the Mt. Vernon branch of Union Planters Bank. |ret||ret||tab|

Together these factors, along with site incentives, influenced his decision to retain a "labor force in the community down there," he added.|ret||ret||tab|

Mt. Vernon was very interested in attracting E. F. Marsh, said Gene Stanton, director of public works for the city. He credited Rich Walker, the previous city administrator with doing the necessary research on Marsh's firm to effectively present his case to the city council. |ret||ret||tab|

Mt. Vernon had a suitable industrial park with the necessary infrastructure and the state of Missouri was supportive, he added. |ret||ret||tab|

Stanton said E. F. Marsh has been granted a real and personal property tax abatement for a 10-year period as an incentive since the city doesn't have a specific enterprise zone to attract businesses. The city of Mt. Vernon owned the land and sold it to the local economic development corporation and it, in turn, gave it to Marsh, he added. |ret||ret||tab|

The general contractor on E. F. Marsh's new 97,000-square-foot facility in Mt. Vernon was Larry Snyder and Company Inc., said Greg Keller, project manager for the firm. Burns & Associates was selected as architect for the project, he added. |ret||ret||tab|

Keller said work began August 2001 and was completed in February. Several area firms assisted in the construction. Bill's Electric Inc. did the electrical work, Advanced Concrete Technology Inc. laid the floor and Burk Erectors set the steel. |ret||ret||tab|

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Future forecast|ret||ret||tab|

In the end, the company's move from Barry County to Lawrence County should increase its productivity and its bottom line. |ret||ret||tab|

In Monett, Marsh's production was maximized at between $6 million to $7 million a year, said Stephen Carr, owner of Visioneering Corp., a Toronto-based engineering firm Marsh enlisted to help in the production process. |ret||ret||tab|

Carr was instrumental in designing the new site to accommodate two production lines to handle the company's portable and custom divisions, respectively. Portable conveyors are standardized designs that are regularly reproduced, Marsh said. Custom designs are created for jobs with specific requirements, he added. |ret||ret||tab|

Marsh said he would like his firm to be at $10 million in sales production after a year in Mt. Vernon, $14 million after two and up to $25 million in five years.|ret||ret||tab|

The sale of the Monett property and select machinery to an unnamed private buyer is scheduled to close on May 21, Marsh said. He would not disclose the price.|ret||ret||tab|

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