AEP Ohio is building a $4 million service center in Oak Grove to replace an existing facility in Marietta.
Jeff Rennie, a spokesman for the company, said AEP inherited the station when it took over service in Washington County from Allegheny Power in 2006 and the facilities can no longer suit its needs.
"We explained to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that we need to integrate this into our system. The building is part of that integration" he said. "The current facility is too small and the buildings are very old."
According to the Washington County auditor's office, AEP bought 8.83 acres of land in Oak Grove in December for $352,500.
Construction began on the service center a month ago, and Rennie said the current plans have it being finished in March.
"The new building will give us a lot more room," he said. "We will have much more storage space for our equipment."
Rennie said the cost of the new facility will eventually be included, in the base rate customers' pay, but the company will not seek a rate increase from the PUCO in the near future to cover it.
"We don't plan to recover the cost for several years," he said.
The current service center is at 1010 Greene St. in Marietta. Rennie said all of the 40 workers from the current center will be transfered to the Oak Grove facility, at 250 BF Goodrich Road.
The new center will take up nearly 10 acres.
Rennie described the center as the base of operations for several functions. Power line workers report in and store their equipment there, customer service representatives for the area work there, and an engineering group is based in it.
Val Holley, Marietta treasurer, said the city might lose a little property tax revenue when the center moves to Oak Grove.
"If they are still employing people who live in the city, then we will still be getting those returns," she said. "The city only gets a small percentage of the property taxes."
Because of business confidentiality, Holley said she could not give the exact figure for how much the city makes from the property taxes on the current service center.
