By SHAWN PIATEK
WINDBER — Government grants are sometimes looked at as being handouts rather than funding that’s been earned.
Kathleen McGinty, state secretary of environmental protection, was quick to note Monday that the $600,000 she was presenting to Kuchera Defense Systems wasn’t a giveaway. McGinty said it was just investing in a business that proved it will do what it says.
About a year ago, McGinty presented Kuchera with a grant of nearly $400,000 to help establish the Center for Excellence for Advanced Energy Systems Manufacturing. Monday’s press conference was held in the renovated space that houses the center and Kuchera officials went on to mention that the grant has resulted in about 50 new jobs.
“They said last year that they were going to do it, and they did,” McGinty said. “That’s what makes this such an easy investment for us.”
The $600,000 will go toward further developing the center and its capabilities.
Bill Kuchera, CEO of Kuchera Defense, said the money will further develop the company’s research and development engineering department.
Kuchera said the engineering wing, which has grown from eight employees in 2003 to 55 today, has been a key driver in Kuchera’s continued growth.
The department has allowed the company, which employs 375, to grow from being strictly a subcontractor to one that now directly competes for government work.
“Being as lean an operation as we are, we’re able to execute a lot of the smaller contracts the big companies cannot and produce actual goods, not just studies,” he said.
McGinty believes the entire state will benefit from the state’s push to develop alternative energy.
“For instance,” she said, “we are becoming the home to some of the biggest biofuel manufacturing operations in the country. We have about 10 million gallons of production capability in the state but the market is still huge.”
