MOUNT VERNON — Employees at the Mount Vernon Jeld-Wen plant were paid a visit from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown on Monday afternoon when the senator from Ohio came to tour the plant and update plant officials and workers on how the local window and door manufacturer has benefited from provisions in the Recovery Act, which encouraged the purchase of energy-efficient windows and doors.
According to Jeld-Wen plant manager Brad Hunter, the Recovery Act boosted business at the local plant by a significant margin. Before the act’s passage, the Mount Vernon plant had almost no orders for a particular type of energy-efficient window. After the act encouraged homeowners with incentives for their purchases, more than 20 percent of the work in Mount Vernon was dedicated to building these products.
“We hired about 70 extra employees this summer (2010),” said Hunter. “Our sales were up considerably. We were about 26 percent above our goal during this period.”
While the act increased production at Jeld-Wen and other manufacturers, tax incentives were offered to consumers to encourage them to replace energy-draining windows with high-efficiency models and boost the nation’s drive for clean energy.
