The prospect of bringing 120 more jobs to the county came closer to fruition after the Lawrence County Commission approved the transfer of a small parcel of land to the Lawrence County Port Authority.

This past September Emerson Network Power announced it was purchasing the Liebert plant on South Sixth Street after leasing the facility for the past 10 years. At that time Emerson, Liebert’s parent company, said it expected to increase its workforce here by almost 50 percent over the next three years as part of purchasing the plant.

In question was a 80-by-165-foot tract behind Liebert that belonged to the county following the move by the Ohio Department of Transportation of its former maintenance garage from South Sixth Street to the Ironton Industrial Park. The county now uses that building and property for its engineering department.

However there was a clause in the deed that stated if the county no longer wanted any part of that property it would revert back to ODOT.

Getting that clause dropped from the deed was required before the county could begin to facilitate ownership of that tract to Liebert with the expected job expansion for the area.

“That is not something you want to wait for,” County Commission President Les Boggs said at the commission’s Thursday meeting.

Boggs along with State Rep. Danny Bubp of the 88th District and Terry Johnson of the 89th District worked to remove that clause from the deed.

Now, with the transfer of the parcel, the next step is for the county port authority to deed it to Liebert, Boggs said.

At the time of the announcement of the Liebert purchase Emerson reported that it would add 120 hourly manufacturing jobs between 2011 and 2014. There would also be a 12,000 square-foot addition to the existing 194,000 square-foot structure for a paint operation and weld shop.

Calls made concerning the status of the expansion to Jerry Rowe, Liebert plant manager, Emily Acquisto, the spokesperson at the time the expansion was announced, and Julie Russo, with Emerson’s media, were not returned by press time.