Conveyor Engineering gearing up for presidential visit

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Conveyor Engineering and Manufacturing co-owner Graig Cone speculates one reason his manufacturing plant here will be used as a backdrop for President Obama's first attempt to take his State of the Union message to the public is location.

The plant is about a mile from where Air Force One will land at The Eastern Iowa Airport.

But Cone also thinks Obama wants to talk about manufacturing jobs and alternative energy at Conveyor Engineering because the company is involved in both.

The company started as a small garage shop in Shueyville in 1977.  In 2008, the 80 engineering and manufacturing workers moved to a new facility near the airport.

Several workers were selected to speak with the president during a brief tour and welder Keith Blozvich is one of them. “Everybody's full of questions - how's this going to work?  Everything's up in the air now,” Blozvich said.

Cone said managers didn't have a clue the White House was interested in a visit until late last week.  It took two or three calls from the White House communications office to reach a manager because some at the firm considered the first call some kind of prank.

Cone said wondered if the president's message will address the role medium-sized companies play in adding jobs. “Í hear little tidbits that his speech will be about jobs, manufacturing jobs, and I think we have a new facility here-close to the airport.  We're not a big company by any stretch, but we're not a small mom & pop shop either,” Cone said.

There's excitement at the plan about a presidential visit but Cone said it comes with a price.  Production will cease all of Wednesday for the visit.  Some workers might have to come in to work Saturday to make up for lost time.