Notified — How PEDCO’s new recruitment stacks up

May 11, 2017 | 17 jobs at an average salary of $36,850.

It has been five months — almost half a year — since the Pueblo Economic Development Corporation hit reset on its jobs goal, and Pueblo is seeing the first announcement of the year.

Business leaders gathered at the Rawlings Library in Pueblo Monday to welcome the new company, CR Minerals, and send the company’s leaders home to New Mexico with a new Stetson cowboy hat (it’s tradition).

So this week we’re explaining the recruitment numbers and how they compare to the announcements from last year — which was also a 500-job goal year. At the Monday event there was little talk about the number of jobs — the PEDCO board president eventually highlighted that number — and average salary was never mentioned.

We have that all laid out in this edition of Notified.

CR Minerals receives city money, commits 17 jobs to Pueblo

PEDCO is now 17 jobs into their 500-job goal for 2017. Monday the group announced CR Minerals, which makes pumice products, would establish a manufacturing plant in Pueblo, with the help of $250,000 from the city’s half-cent sales tax fund.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 17 jobs by July 2020.
• $10 million will go into building the new plant, according to PEDCO.
• The average salary, deemed in the city contract, is $36,850/yr. → Pueblo’s median household income is around $41,000.
• Most jobs will be manufacturing, but a plant manager and a few administration jobs will be created, too.
• The city will pay for $50,000 in rail upgrades.
• CR Minerals is set to receive $250,000 for property.

CR Minerals will be manufacturing their newly patented product that is used in the construction industry. The company will use pumice — the company has a mine in New Mexico — fly ash, a byproduct from coal-fired power plants and other materials to make the product.

The company says it will be utilizing the local Xcel power plant for fly ash.

How does CR Minerals compare to other recent PEDCO recruitments?

Last year, PEDCO’s four jobs announcements ranged from three jobs (Formulary 55) to more than 100 jobs (Vestas). CR Mineral’s average salary falls somewhere in between the companies that were recruited, mostly alligning with Coronado Stone Products, which committed to an average salary of $36,000.

Last year, Big R led the pack in average salary expectations, $64,000 including benefits.

What’s next?

PEDCO and the city are hushed about recruitment efforts — revealing they called the CR Minerals recruitment “Project Rock.” So it’s unclear what or when the next announcement might be.

At the beginning of the year PEDCO President and CEO Jeff Shaw said he was confident about the 500-job goal — even though the organization fell 300 jobs short from the same goal in 2016.

PEDCO only has 234 days and 483 jobs to go.