Almost 100 people are employed at Procter & Gamble now, two years after construction began at the Greenfield, Box Elder County, site. That number will increase to about 300 by the end of the year.
Matthew Donthnier, human resources and external relations leader for Procter & Gamble, said the company's distribution center is running test shipments before the official opening of the distribution center at the end of April.
This is good news after the recent layoffs of hundreds of people in Box Elder County. According to Craig Stewart at the Department of Workforces Services office in Brigham City, 1,700 people in the county lost their jobs last year.
"[Procter & Gamble} is the bright spot in the county, but they're certainly not going to be the saviors," he said.
Stewart said Box Elder's unemployment rate in February was 8.1 percent, a full percentage point higher than the state's unemployment rate of 7.1 percent. In 2008, the county's unemployment rate was 3.2 percent.
Aside from providing much-needed jobs, Procter & Gamble will also bring financial gain to the county. Prior to the factory construction, the land it is on was farm ground with little taxable value.
"The value of the land went from a few thousand (dollars) to several million," said Box Elder County auditor Tom Bennett.
The increased value has raised revenue for all taxing entities in the county. Starting in 2011 and continuing through the first 20 years of operation, some of the tax money collected will go back to Procter & Gamble to repay administrative fees and construction costs, including the bond secured by Brigham City to supply water to the plant.
"Procter & Gamble has already spent millions of dollars, hired hundreds of people, and boosted our economy at a time when there is not much good news," said Bennett. "The tax increment should wrap up in 2031, at which time all the increased value will produce a large increase in revenue for the taxing entities in the form of new growth. All in all, it is a very positive thing for our county."
The distribution center is the first of three sections to open. Shipments from the Midwest will be received and delivered to customers around the region. Those shipments are now being distributed from a leased warehouse in Seattle, so Donthnier said the opening of this distribution center brings the company one step closer to being self-sufficient.
The other two sections of the facility will be in full operation by the end of the year. Procter & Gamble will manufacture Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue and the packaging materials for those products.
Although there are about 200 more positions to fill, additional new hires will be selected from applications already on file with the company.
"We have stopped taking applications for a time because we have a substantial hiring pool," he said. "We had 4,000 applicants for 300 jobs. If we need to open it back up again, we'll look at that later this summer."
Construction on the one million square foot plant began in early 2008. Donthnier told the Brigham City City Council then that Procter & Gamble is a community company whose mantra is "touching lives." And, he said, their goal is to bring a large company to a rural area with as little impact as possible.
Two residents near the plant said they are already feeling the company's presence. Chanel Kirchhoefer and Brian Allen live about a mile south of Procter & Gamble, just off Iowa String Road. They told county commissioners on March 16 that vehicles on that road are a hazard to the 18 school-age children living nearby and a nuisance in the middle of the night as semitrailers approach Highway 13.
Their biggest concerns are the early morning and late afternoon hours, when employees are traveling to and from work and students are getting on and off the bus.
However, Kim Norman, who has lived on Iowa String Road for about 13 years, doesn't believe there has been anything to complain about.
"The traffic is annoying, and we did move out here to be alone, but we knew it would come," she said.
Norman was invited to attend the meeting when Kirchhoefer and Allen spoke to county commissioners, but said she and her husband did not believe there was anything to complain about.
Gregg Johnson, a Box Elder School District bus driver, said he has had only one incident of a driver passing his bus while lights were flashing since he took this route at the beginning of the school year.
Increased truck traffic is not strictly related to Procter & Gamble, however. Walmart also has a distribution center in Corinne, and many truckers use that road to access the interstate. In addition, the Box Elder County landfill also is accessed by the same road.
Iowa String Road, a north-south road connecting West Corinne and Tremonton, was once a rural county road with little traffic. Data supplied by the Box Elder County Sheriff's Office indicates that about 750 vehicles per day travel that road.
The county said all it can do for now is to put up signs alerting drivers of the 55 mile per hour speed limit on Iowa String. In addition, the sheriff's office has increased patrols in the area.
Donthnier said Procter & Gamble is grateful for both the signs and the patrol.
"We expect people to obey the law," he said.
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