BlueOVAL SK representative speaks at Cave City quarterly chamber breakfast

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

Under the morning’s soft light community members from the Barren County community gathered at the Cave Area Conference Center to listen to a representative of BlueOval SK speak about the imminent electric vehicle plants coming to Glendale next year.

In Sept. 2021 Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, along with Ford and SK On, announced a $5.8 billion investment that would go towards the construction of two electric vehicle battery factories in Glendale. Since that time there has been near-constant construction at and around the 86 exit of Interstate 65.

The two factories — called Kentucky 1 and 2 — are being built on roughly 1,500 acres that was purchased by the commonwealth many years ago, according to Sarah Vaughn, BlueOval SK’s community relations representative for Kentucky, who gave the brief 20-minute presentation at the breakfast. Each factories will span 60 football fields — 6,000 yards — which will be divided into four sections that will specialize in a different step of constructing an electric vehicle battery. In total, between Kentucky 1 and 2, roughly 5,000 jobs will be created, she said.

Deborah Thorpe, president of the Cave City Chamber of Commerce, announced at the breakfast that BlueOval SK recently became a member. Last year BlueOval SK became a member of Barren Inc. and with that introduction Vaughn stepped to the front of the room. Her slideshow involved explaining BlueOval SK’s construction process, the newly-opened training center and the factories’ job opportunities.

Elizabethtown Community & Technical College held a ribbon cutting on May 8 on the new BlueOval SK training center, which will provide employees with the necessary job training, Vaughn said. Currently employees are completing a 40-hour orientation, Vaughn said, but as equipment begins to arrive and get installed the facility will provide “hands-on” training.

“Right now most of our employees that have come on board go to [the] SK on facility in Georgia so we have to ship most of our employees over there to do their training…but we will very soon be able to do all that on site,” Vaughn said. “It’s very exciting to be able to do that and have them trained ready to walk out of that facility and onto the floor of BlueOval SK. It’s a great opportunity for our college students, high school students [and] anyone who gets a job with us.”

As Vaughn explained the college received a $25 million grant to construct and open the training center.

During the course of her presentation Vaughn turned to the jobs available at BlueOval SK. She said they are “actively hiring every single day.” According to the company’s job listings they are accepting applications for engineers, production operators, maintenance technicians and associate maintenance technicians.

As previously reported, Mallory Cooke, the company’s external communication person, said “a manufacturing plant this size will mean change for the surrounding areas” and it was in that vein that Libby Short, the chamber’s program director,  touched on the economic impact to Cave City.

“What most don’t know is the economic impact that BlueOval SK has had on Cave City for about a year and a half now,” Short said. “There have been 18 apartments rented for the past year-and-a-half at Glenwood, so if you have 18 apartments, some of those with multiple occupants, you also have them putting gas in their vehicles, buying groceries, eating in our restaurants or frequenting our other establishments.”

“We’re excited about the possibilities in Cave City [for the] new homes that are going to be built, the residence we’re going to have moving in and the guests that will be frequenting all of our businesses,” Thorpe said in conclusion.

According to Vaughn Kentucky 1 is scheduled to open in 2025, though she didn’t provide a specific date, while Kentucky 2 is currently paused.