A Place to Grow

Josie Luke

Built in 1912, the building located 105 North Main in Huntington has served as a post office, bank, meat market, grocery store, ice cream and sandwich shop, furniture store, office building, and more, but after recent renovations now houses Carbon Emery Service Insurance.

After 30 years in business, Mark and Kathy Justice wanted a better location for their business, so they bought the building and made it the home of their insurance and tax service. “We certainly are here to service people and that is the primary reason for the change, because our business is growing and we needed more room,” Kathy explained.

She revealed that after buying the building they decided to “really upgrade” the space.

They replaced the roof, put stucco on the facade, framed their offices, put up new sheet rock, painted the new rooms, put in a bathroom, and replaced the carpet. They also attempted to retain some of the original feeling of the building, including leaving the adobe glass around the outside of the windows. “If Mark could restore every old building in Huntington, he would,” she joked.

Along with the section of the building that they use for their business, they built professional offices in the space next door. Their section consists of a reception area, three offices, a lounge area, kitchenette, and bathroom, while the professional offices contain a reception area and three offices, with unused space behind.

The Justices’ business provides tax preparation services along with every type of insurance one can think of, “We can insure anything,” Kathy revealed, “Somebody asked me once to insure their dog, and I could. We’re here to service the public and give them the best rates possible, so that they can have peace of mind that somebody is handling their interests.”

When asked the reason they have stayed in business so long, Kathy replied, “the customers.” She also shared that one of the best things they ever did for their business was to “bring our son in.” The couple’s son Chris is now a co-owner.

She also described the positive reception the project has had from the community. “A lot of people in Huntington have just been overwhelmingly happy with what we’ve done with the building. I’m grateful that they realize that we wanted to give back to the community. That’s one of the reasons we did this. To provide something that beautifies the town,” she related.

Bucyrus customer service center
brings growth to Huntington

Josie Luke

Anyone who drives past the 100,000 square foot facility outside Huntington can see how much has it has grown and changed since DBT took it over from Long Airdox six years ago. Now the sign outside has changed again – this time to Bucyrus America Inc.

Bucyrus America, headquartered in Wisconsin is a subsidiary of Bucyrus International, Inc., which is involved in the design and manufacture of mining equipment for the surface and underground mining industries. The surface equipment is used for mining coal, copper, iron ore, oil sands and other minerals, while the underground equipment is used primarily for mining coal.

According to Western Region General Manager Tim McCallum, “Even though, strictly speaking, we just started calling ourselves Bucyrus on Jan. 2, the deal has been done for a year.” This latest name change follows the construction of a facility the company is proud of. “We have visitors flying into Huntington from China, Australia, the UK, and India,” he revealed.

The Huntington site will continue to work primarily on underground mining equipment and provide services to mines throughout the West, from local Utah mines to mines in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, and even Mexico.

Steve Martinez, the Western Region’s Commercial Manager, works at the new multimillion dollar plant for which he was project manager during construction. He points out that the plant has a “joint conceptual design”, with 80,000 square feet of shop space, 10,000 square feet of warehouse space and 10,000 square feet of office space.
“We don’t build new equipment here – it is manufactured overseas and the Eastern states,” explained McCallum. “This is a rebuild center. When equipment has been in service for a time, it comes here for overhaul. We also sell replacement parts for maintenance and repair, but our main activity is rebuilding.”

Features of the new center include fiber-optic telecommunications, a high -capacity computerized automated storage and retrieval system, test voltages up to 4160 V, 10-ton to 50-ton overhead cranes, a large meeting room, conference rooms, and private offices.

Before building the new plant, the company also maintained a facility in Carbon County, but because they owned the land in Huntingdon and were leasing the land in Carbon County, it was decided to combine the two. This led to the number of full-time workers at the Huntington facility increasing to 95.

Both Tim McCullum and Steve Martinez expressed how positive the experience has been. “The whole of Emery County – from building officials to the building inspector and Huntington City – have been extremely cooperative and very welcoming of this expansion.”

Bucyrus America is also looking forward to inviting the community to an open house to be held later this spring, when landscaping has been completed and can be fully appreciated by visitors.