HUBBARD, Ohio - Trumbull County Commissioners have approved a 75 percent tax abatement requested by a Hubbard company planning to expand.

VEC/Evets Electrical Inc. wants to invest $2.5 million to expand it's facility on Erie Street in Hubbard.

"We're going to add on a 4-bay, 20,000 square foot fabricating facility with about 7,500 square feet of office space," says Evets employee Jeff Barber.

Working with the Regional Chamber of Commerce, the company is asking for an enterprise zone tax abatement of 75 percent, which would apply only to the new addition.

"The company is still going to pay the same amount of property tax, the same amount of income tax, from their current site," says William Cann of the Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Barber says the expansion is designed to meet the growing needs of it's customers, primarily in the oil and gas industry.

"It'll give us the capacity to probably triple out production rates at this point," says Barber.

That increase in production will help create about 30 new jobs in engineering, manufacturing and office support. Barber says they are happy to be able to re-invest here and give back to the local community.

"We've basically been sending our guys out of town and we're very excited that it's now here locally and we can keep these guys here with their families," he says.

The industry they serve is growing every day, and Barber says they want to be ready when new customers come calling.

"We felt that it was an immediate need, that we needed to start looking forward and planning for the future," he says.