Feb 21, 2007 By Christine Haines 3 min read

BROWNSVILLE – It’s been just over a year since new ownership took over the barge-making facility at the end of Water Street in Brownsville and so far 36 new barges have been launched. Joe Browning, the general manager of Brownsville Marine Products, said 90 barges are scheduled for launch this year and the staffing will be increasing to accommodate that. He was the guest speaker Tuesday at the Greater Brownsville Area Chamber of Commerce meeting.

“We’re going to grow to 225-250 people right now for our one product line. We will add a second product line in the next few years to diversify, plus a marine repair operation that will take us to 300 to 350 people,” Browning said.

John Evans of the Fayette County CareerLink said he’s been working with Brownsville Marine Products for the past year.

“I’m very optimistic now about what is going on at the plant. The current ownership and management team is very impressive,” Evans said. “The hourly wages at the plant have made a tremendous jump from previous owners.”

Browning said wages at the barge facility range from $9 to $19 per hour, depending on skill level and experience.

“We’ve opened our own weld school and are training our own people,” Browning said.

Browning said that by running its own welding school, the company isn’t dependent on the training schedule of area post-secondary programs for welders and can take willing workers from the general population, regardless of past experience.

“If they come with no experience, we’ll train them. If they can stand the elements, the hot and the cold, we’ll take care of them and bring them along,” Browning said.

“That plant has always been a backbone of this community,” said Frank Ricco, president of the chamber.

Browning invited the chamber to hold one of its meetings at the barge plant once the weather warms up. Browning said the meeting could be scheduled for a day when a barge is scheduled to be launched and a chamber member could launch the craft.

In other matters, the chamber discussed this year’s river cruise. It will be held on July 31, the Tuesday before Kennywood Day. The four area fire departments, Brownsville No. 1, South Brownsville, Hiller and West Brownsville, are co-sponsoring the event along with the chamber and the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp. for the second year. Each organization is responsible for selling 50 tickets for the event.

In the past the chamber was the sole sponsor of the event and selected one person each year to honor for his or her contributions to the community. Last year the fire departments and BARC were added to the sponsorship and the fire departments were honored on the cruise.

Ryan asked the chamber members if they wanted to select one person to honor or whether they would instead like to give each of the six organizations five minutes to provide information or honor one of their own members during the cruise.

Chamber member Genevieve Capatosti suggested that each organization be given five minutes.

“That way you’re almost guaranteed ticket sales,” Capatosti said.

Ricco agreed.

“That would make it more interesting for each group,” Ricco said.

Tickets for the cruise will be available in April or May.