A Texas-based company is set to make an announcement Tuesday for what is expected to be a proposed ammunition manufacturing facility in Eastern Kanawha County that, according to a draft news release, could create 450 high-tech jobs.
Officials with Ranger Scientific LLC are scheduled to hold an event at Riverside High School, where speakers will announce the construction of "one of the largest industrial facilities in the Kanawha Valley" on 1,000 acres of reclaimed surface mine land, according to the draft release and a private email announcement.
No one from the company could be reached for this report, and officials with the law firm Dinsmore & Shohl, which is representing Ranger Scientific, didn't respond to questions about the event.
However, Kanawha County Commissioner Dave Hardy said political and economic development officials only recently were told about the company's interest in building an ammunition manufacturing plant near Riverside High. The exact surface mine being considered is not named in the release, but there is only one surface mine just east of Belle.
"We have not been involved in this particular project, other than just becoming aware of it and being invited to the ceremony," Hardy said. "We hope that it is real and that there will be a number of jobs created there."
The news release says Ranger Scientific expects to produce 500 million rounds of "harmonically-tuned" rifle ammunition annually at what the company plans to call its "Olympus facility." That type of ammunition, the release states, is used by Olympic competitors, hunters and "various specialized U.S. military applications."
The release does not indicate when the manufacturing facility might be constructed or when operations at the proposed plant could begin.
According to the West Virginia secretary of state's website, Ranger Scientific LCC was incorporated in the state on March 23.
That is the same date that West Virginia lawmakers sent a bill - HB 2110 - to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin that would have given small-arms ammunition manufacturers large tax breaks in the state. The governor later vetoed that bill.
At that time, Republican legislators hinted that the bill was related to a company that was considering opening up an ammunition manufacturing facility in Kanawha County.
There is very little information available online about Ranger Scientific, which has a listed address in Austin, Texas. The draft news release includes a hyperlink that goes to a website that is not yet operational
According to the secretary of state's website, the company's business address in West Virginia is at 7 Beacon Hill, Charleston, a residential community east of the Yeager Airport.
It's corporate officers are listed as Mark Ryan, Karl Clay and Daniel Pearlson. According to the email announcement, Clay is the company's chief operations officer. Pearlson's LinkedIn account lists him as Ranger's CEO, and Ryan's profile says he is the company's managing director.
According to the email, Tuesday's event is expected to include the entire Riverside High School student body, community leaders, Kanawha County commissioners, Tomblin, state legislators and West Virginia's congressional members. The draft news release also suggested that West Virginia University President Gordon Gee and Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Ron Duerring could be at the event.
However, several of those expected attendees said they have no plans to attend the previously undisclosed event, at this point.
Chris Stadelman, Tomblin's communications director, said the governor has no public events scheduled for Tuesday, and Jonathan Kott, Sen. Joe Manchin's communications director, said their office was not aware of the Democratic senator attending any event in Kanawha County that day.
West Virginia Development Office officials said they were aware of the event and had offered to assist the company, but they had no other information about the company or its expected announcement.
"We're always excited to see companies locating and expanding in West Virginia," said Chelsea Ruby, the Development Office's marketing and communications director.
The email announcement says four to five people would speak at the event about "job growth, community investment and the opportunity to provide economic and social hope to this impoverished area," and that a "community picnic" will be held afterward with the Riverside students.
The private announcement also says there will be "no press briefing area" set up for the event, and that any interviews would need to take place during the picnic, which is meant to "showcase the community aspect" of the announcement.
"Please be discrete in disseminating this to the prospective attendees so as to minimize premature press coverage," the email says at the end.
The release says the Kanawha County surface mine location was chosen by Ranger Scientific after the company considered other development sites in Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.
"We are confident that we've chosen our home wisely," Pearlson said in the prepared statement, "and we feel very fortunate and proud to announce that our permanent headquarters and home is in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia."
Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow @Andy_Ed_Brown on Twitter.