The expansion project at Myrtle Beach International Airport is promising to bring 400 jobs to Horry County where the unemployment rate is currently sitting at 12.2%.
Representatives with M.B. Kahn Construction Company said that they want most of these jobs to go to small, local employers.
“The Terminal Enhancement project will create new construction jobs in direct construction trades, such as concrete finishers, masons, steel erectors, electricians, plumbers,” the company’s executive vice president, Rick Ott said in a written statement Monday, “we are expecting 60 to 70 percent of contractors to be local.”
The large project will be broken down into 25 to 40 smaller projects in order to give those local workers the ability to take advantage of the opportunity.
Reverend Tim McCray a community leader in Myrtle Beach said he started an organization called, the Alliance for Minority Bonded Entrepreneurs or AMBE two years ago to help and train minority-owned contractors in understanding the process for bonding and bidding.
McCray said these minority contractors have been struggling to keep their employees because of work shortages and not having enough pay.
"Some of them have not been finding any jobs for the past year or two, they had to lay off some of their staff that have been working for them for years...these opportunities are definitely needed for them to get their company back up and running,” McCray said.
“The airport is a community asset and we are really committed to being an asset for the community,” said Lauren Morris, spokesperson for the Horry County Department of Airports, “so if we are able to provide jobs for people, that's a trickle down effect and those people in turn will be buying groceries and going out to eat and buying clothes for their children."
The project is costing $90 million which Ott said should start in March.
He said the project is in its final stages of design, permit and funding.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement