DOT Decision Move James River Project Along

Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008

The building of a new James River Equipment facility has been in jeopardy until this past week. James River Equipment recently broke ground on a new 3.5 million-dollar facility in the Lake View Industrial Park. To go along with the project, a request was submitted to the South Dakota Department of Transportation for a 40-foot break along Highway 34 to provide an access road to the facility. That request was initially denied by the DOT.

That decision was appealed last week at a DOT commission hearing. District 8 Legislator Russ Olson, a member of the House Transportation Committee, testified that the building of the new facility would result in the retention of 20 jobs, as well as the creation of 9 additional jobs. In the end the DOT overturned their original decision and will allow the construction of an access road.

Rodger Menn, the James River Equipment operation manager for South Dakota and Nebraska said that with out a second access, the new facility would not have been a workable situation.

James River's new site will house a 45,000 square-foot facility, located on the Lake View Industrial Park.