Fockler Industries and Curran Renewable Energy, two local manufacturing companies, have received the assistance of the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency for their operations.

The IDA recently approved a lease for Fockler, Norfolk, to move some of its equipment into a 9,000-square-foot building in the Massena Industrial Park.

The machine shop purchased a fabricating business, J.M. Mussells, Saranac Lake, whose primary customer was UPS, but had no space left at its home base.

“The location we’re in, we had no room,” said Peggy Fockler, who owns the business with her husband, Dale M. “We’ve added on three times.”

Three-phase electrical power available in Massena also will help the company, as will the availability of an adjacent 9,000-square-foot space in the industrial park.

“I’m hoping we’ll need that in a year,” Mrs. Fockler said.

Fockler’s employs nine people but that could rise with the addition of the new business.

“We’re hoping it will at least double, but we’re not sure how fast things are going to happen,” Mrs. Fockler said.

The old location will remain open as well.

The company has other irons in the fire, including the possibility of making a product still in the design stage for a new company and making parts for a firm that produces security doors.

“They’re looking to have some parts made in America,” Mrs. Fockler said. “Those are the things that are in our plan that we’re pursuing.”

Mrs. Fockler said that her family business hails from a long line of machinists and that the company wants to do its part in creating jobs to keep young people from leaving the county.

“Whatever someone needs fixing, we do. It’s a dying art,” she said. “America’s going to die if it doesn’t make things. We don’t want that to happen.”

The IDA also approved a lease/purchase agreement for Curran, Massena, which is exercising its option to purchase for $600,000 a 20,000-square-foot building that it uses as a support facility, IDA Executive Director Patrick J. Kelly said.

The IDA also approved a $100,000 loan to help Curran purchase environmental equipment for its wood pellet mill, Mr. Kelly said.

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