In Pine Bluff, You Will Find A ‘Strong’ Presence

Editor’s note: This article appears in the latest magazine edition of Talk Business Arkansas, which you can read here.

When visitors enter the front door of Strong Manufacturing in Pine Bluff, they are greeted with two things: a cat named Cali and a warm smile from the receptionist with a warning not to pet the cat because she bites.

“She keeps the mice and snakes at bay,” Annette Kline smiled and said about Cali.

Kline and her husband, Mike, own the company her father, the late William Strong, started 50 years ago.

With a passion to live the American dream, Strong took his construction business to Pine Bluff to help construct the International Paper Company Mill more than half century ago. He then began Strong Manufacturing, which makes mixers and pumps for the application of lightweight concrete products, composed of vermiculite and perlite, used in construction.

Strong was an innovative industry leader who held 10 patents. He was the original developer of the first-floor underlayment and lightweight concrete mixing and pumping machines.

In 1967, Strong Manufacturing moved to its current location, which was once Toney Field airport, a training field for fighter pilots during World War I.

Kline said the family has no intention of selling its business to a larger company or moving it to another region.

“When you’re family run, you have to know everything from cleaning toilets to getting a loan at the bank,” Kline says. “You’re helping other people, too.”

The Kline’s son, Kris, will be the third generation to run Strong Manufacturing, but this family-owned business doesn’t rely on bloodlines to consider co-workers next of kin.

“More than half of our employees are long term – some even over 30 years. Once we get an employee, we like to keep them,” she said.

A NON-VIOLENT SOLUTION
A few of their 28 employees were hired through non-traditional means.

About eight years ago when one employee was injured, Kline said she began looking for someone with experience running machines to fill in for the injured worker. That’s when she called Mark Taylor, who is the work-release supervisor for the Pine Bluff Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction. The work-release program allows non-violent offenders to be eligible to hold jobs in the private sector during the last two years of their incarceration.

“What’s best about work-release people is they’re here every day, on time, and drug and alcohol free,” Taylor said. “And they’re usually very happy to work.”

The workers are paid a fair wage, Taylor said, and a percentage goes into a trust that they can withdraw when they are released from prison, and the rest goes to help cover their expenses at the prison and to their families.

“Our program helps a lot more people,” Taylor said. “We require them to pay dependent care to their children … We don’t go in and try to take jobs away from the community. I try to suit jobs skills to what [employers] request.”

Taylor added that this helps the prisoners’ families not to have to rely on welfare, and it gives the inmates skills to use after they are released to help keep them out of the prison system.

SECOND CHANCE STORIES
Nine years ago, a man we will simply call “David” began to turn his life around. After being incarcerated on drug charges, David joined the work-release program and started work at Strong Manufacturing. He said he spent two years on the work-release program, but he chose to stay with the company.

“It gave me something to look forward to, and I learned how to be responsible,” he said.

After spending four years in prison, David said the work-release program gave him a new start on life.

“Instead of a $100 bill and a bus ticket, you’ve got funds to help,” he said about the trust that a portion of his earnings went into.

Another long-term employee of Strong is Derial Moseley. He is in his last year of parole, and he has been at the company for seven years. He was an iron worker for 20 years before being incarcerated on drug charges. Not only has his job given him a second chance at a productive future, he’s also now married.

“I didn’t have to start at rock bottom,” he said as he guided large white plastic sheets through a roller. “I had enough money to get a ride and a home and enough money to live without starting over.”

Moseley offered some advice to other non-violent inmates who may have an opportunity to get into the work-release program.

“Take full advantage of it and learn what you can while you’re there,” Moseley said.

Glen Ramey, 54, and David Hankins, 24, are also in the work-release program.

Ramey, who has been working at Strong for 11 months, said he lost his family when he was “locked up,” and the opportunity to work has changed the course of his future.

“I plan to stay here,” he said. “This is really good, and it keeps you out of prison.”

Hankins has been with Strong for a short time, but he’s been in prison for six years. He agreed with Ramey about the program altering his future by giving him the skills to make a living.

“I’ve gotten a lot of skills at this company, and I can make decent money to take care of myself,” he said. “I plan to combine welding and tattoos. I’d like to build custom motorcycles.”

The newest work-release employee at the company has been there for only a few weeks. Thirty-nine-year-old Lloyd Jensen has completed about half of his prison sentence and is a licensed welder.

“This place offers a lot more skills,” he said as he leaned in to file the edges of an auger pipe. “I’ll be more secure when I get out [of prison].”

Jensen plans to continue working at Strong even after he’s released from prison.

“It teaches us how to adapt back to society and to be responsible,” he said about the work-release program.

“We take it very seriously. I’m able to save money. In 25 months, I’ll be able to save a lot, and now I can help support my wife. [The work-release program] teaches the inmates how to save money and to be financially responsible. I never had that before.”

Another way Strong Manufacturing helps out its employees is by aiding them in purchasing the tools of the trade.

“We have a program where they can buy their own tools through payroll deduction, so they have them when they’re out,” Kline said.

She added that Pine Bluff offers a small pool of qualified workers for her company’s needs and the work-release program fills that void.

“They are whole-heartedly dedicated,” Taylor said about the inmates. “They try to work overtime, and they go above and beyond.”

Kline added, “It also helps first-time offenders most. They are the hardest workers, because they don’t want to go back to prison.”