Workers, business owners anticipate boon

For the past year, Lee Sims has spent his day off honing his welding skills, voluntarily wearing a welder's mask for hours every Friday.

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Zach Boyden-Holmes/Staff

Waynesboro Businesses like William Mizell ford are hoping to benefit from the 3000 jobs created building Vogtle.

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Zach Boyden-Holmes/Staff

William Mizell, the owner of William Mizell Ford, expects an increase in business brought by construction of the new reactors at Plant Vogtle. Money from wages "will begin circulating around the community," he said.

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Tim Rausch/Staff

Lee Sims, 40, of Harlem, has been welding since age 15. He is training to get his credentials in the hopes of getting a job building the new reactors. "I see it as a better future than what I'm doing now," he said.

The 40-year-old Harlem man is seeking to be one of the 3,000 people who will build the new nuclear power reactors at Plant Vogtle.

To do that, he seeks perfection. Perfect is the welding standard that he needs to achieve -- and prove -- before he can get one of those jobs.

"I see it as a better future than what I'm doing now. Production work is not a bad thing, but it has ups and downs," he said during a brief break from his training in a welding booth at the Plumber and Steamfitters Local 150 on Telfair Street.

Mr. Sims has been welding since he was 15 years old but has spent the last 21 years on the production line at E-Z-Go. He is not a union member yet, but should be after he's through with his training.

Jeff Rice, the training coordinator for the union, said he opened the hall on Fridays to accommodate the people who are training to get the nuclear-grade welding standard. Some of the men are training to get jobs at the MOX facility at Savannah River Site since employment at Vogtle is a few years away.

About 500 of the 3,000 construction workers will be skilled craftsmen. Mr. Rice expects 125 to 150 union welders to be on the job site. He said the union is still negotiating with Shaw Group, Plant Vogtle's construction contractor, on whether union labor will be used.

"We built Vogtle and we've done the maintenance on it for the last 20 years," Mr. Rice said. "I feel we will get the critical work."

It took more than 13,000 people to build the first two reactors in the 1970s and 1980s. This time, the on-site work force will peak near 3,500 in 2013 and 2014, said David Jones, Southern Nuclear Co.'s site vice president for Units 3 and 4.

The disparity in numbers comes from the way the new reactors will be built. Parts of the new reactors are being built off-site and will be delivered partially assembled, Mr. Jones explained.

"I can tell you right now, 75 percent of the labor force right now is within a 100-mile radius of the plant," Mr. Jones said.

There are 300 people moving dirt at the site now so that the foundations of the reactors can be set -- work that will continue until the summer of 2011.

Mr. Sims sees Vogtle as a chance for a better-paying job. The average wage for a journeyman is more than $30 an hour.

"My family is hoping everything goes well and praying that I get to where I want to be," said the father of two teens.

Once the reactors are finished, about 800 people will be needed to run them -- technicians and engineers with starting salaries higher than $60,000 a year.

Both the construction and the operation jobs are a boon-in-the-making for the local economy.

"We expect there to be a drastic economic impact with that many new people in the community," said Ashley Roberts, the executive director of the Burke County Chamber of Commerce. "Although it is temporary-- it is five or six years -- it is not your typical short-term growth."

She is basing that off what happened earlier this year, when a few hundred workers put in a new natural gas line in the county.

William Mizell, the owner of Waynesboro's Ford dealership, had a boost in service work for the pipelayers' vehicles and sold a few vehicles to them during the six-month project.

If hundreds generated sales, thousands should generate more.

"We expect to sell some vehicles out of it; we expect to do some service work," Mr. Mizell said.

And then there are indirect benefits: those construction workers spending money on rent, food and other goods and services creates other jobs in the community.

"That money will begin circulating around the community. It might allow the guy who owns the restaurant to buy a vehicle," Mr. Mizell said. "Money touches hands six times if it stays in a community."

Ms. Roberts said there are restaurants growing in anticipation of the construction worker influx. The RV parks are seeing more business through workers using them as temporary living quarters.

"There was a convenience store out there destroyed by the tornado and it is rebuilding quickly to get ready for this," Ms. Roberts said.

She said there also is a sales tax benefit coming to the county.

"Anything is helpful in this economy," Mr. Mizell said. "Jobs is what is going to straighten out our economy. When we get people working and feeling good about their jobs, that's when our economy is going to take care of itself."

Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.