Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — The owner of a new machine shop that recently opened on Harcourt Road is hoping to create ties with area industries.

John Well said his business, MLTW Machine and Tool, opened around the first of the year at 504C Harcourt Road, in a 4,300-square-foot space in the old TSC building. Well worked for Cooper-Bessemer and then Rolls-Royce for over 20 years as a machinist and computer numeric control programmer. Before setting up shop on Harcourt Road, he did machining and fabrication work out of his home.

Well said he has done work for companies such as PACS Industries and Mount Vernon Machine & Tool, but also does work for area farmers and racers. The farmer or drag racer would be a customer who might need one or two custom parts, whereas an industrial customer might need 50 to 100 components for a machine.

In other business news, a new auto parts store will be going into the old Advance Auto Parts store at 806 Coshocton Ave., next to Friendly’s restaurant. Bill Turney, spokesman for O’Reilly’s Auto Parts, said the Mount Vernon store should open around the second week of May. He said O’Reilly’s focuses on providing a broad range of products and quality customer service, adding that all employees are professionally trained. The company, headquartered in Springfield, Mo., has 1,830 chain stores in 26 states and, only recently, began to open stores in Ohio.

Asked why the company decided to come to Mount Vernon, Turney said O’Reilly’s has been expanding outward from a new distribution center that opened in Indianapolis, Ind., in 2006. He said company leaders saw the market opportunity in Mount Vernon and decided to go ahead and open a new chain.