Firm reveals Fayette project
A Virginia company with some local ties is bringing another project and an undisclosed number of jobs to Fayette County. SenSyTech, a Newington, Va.-based firm specializing in electronic systems for the defense and intelligence communities, will hold a groundbreaking Saturday for a building in the Fayette Business Park near Fairchance.
While officials involved in the project would not comment on specifics, Brad Clemenson, media contact for U.S Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, who will attend the 10 a.m. event, said the project obviously “will put more jobs into Fayette County.’
Mike Krajovic, Fay Penn Economic Development Council president, would only say his agency is working to get some job training money for the project.
“I can’t say more than that right now,’ Krajovic added.
In May, S. Kent Rockwell, chairman and CEO of SenSyTech, announced plans to lease a hangar at Connellsville Airport for a testing and assembly facility.
He said that would be just the opener to a longer-range program that could create more than 100 new jobs here in the next several years.
The announcement marked a return for Rockwell who said he started at Connellsville Airport 35 years ago.
Rockwell also did business here in the 1980s. Willard Rockwell, his father, owned Nemacolin Trail Hunting Preserve in Farmington, which the younger Rockwell turned into a public resort.
Rockwell said the company set up the Test Integration Center for the Navy’s Surface Ship Torpedo Defense program at the airport site. The facility will run trials and tests for components of the AN/SLQ 25-A torpedo countermeasure system. In addition, SenSyTech will manufacture electronic card drawers associated with the electronic cabinets of the SLQ 25A in this same building. This manufacturing effort is in addition to the 25A winch contracted this year with Shumar’s Welding and Fabrication in Brier Hill.
Rockwell explained the company employs about 200 people in three production centers and two job shops across the country. Work being done presently at its Farmingdale, N.J., plant is going to be brought to Fayette County.
Anticipated employment will be from 15 to 30 people initially, Rockwell said.
SenSyTech is a 20-year-old company that was recapitalized in 1998. It has three main division: defense systems program, communications group and imaging group.
The company is a technology leader in system design, software development, hardware manufacture, and in support of threat warning systems, electronic reconnaissance systems, satellite ground receiving systems, communications equipment and multispectral scanners and digital imaging equipment to U.S. and worldwide markets.