State and local leaders tour reopened Bolivar Tracker Marine plant

People in Bolivar are building boats again after a nine year hiatus. Tracker Marine plant in Bolivar had to shut down in 2009, but they reopened again this April.

Production manager Stephen Skopec is back home, building boats in Bolivar. "I started in 1989 on the assembly line. I worked my way up though different parts of the manufacturing to lead person and supervisor, eventually got into the engineering department," says Skopec.

He and many others were forced to leave in 2009. Skopec has been commuting to Tracker in Lebanon, but is glad to be back. "When the opportunity for this plant came again, I was pretty excited, not only for myself, because I only live a few miles from it, but for everyone that used to work here," Skopec says.

Several workers have returned, but after nine years, the majority were brand new, and there was a lot of training to do. "It's been challenging. We started from scratch. We started at 3 boats a day at the beginning of April. We would do that for a week, and the next week, we did six boats a day," says Skopec. Now, they're up to buildling 20 boats a day with a full staff of 130 people.

State and local leaders are proud of what they've accomplished. "This is exactly the kind of job growth, good wages, that we need in Bolivar, we need all over our state," says MO Attorney General Josh Hawley. "This is a sign of our economy beginning to get back on its feet."

Skopec says the pontoons they build here are only growing in popularity. Bass Pro's acquisition of Cabelas has also given them more places to sell. Folks here hope the growth continues and people continue to enjoy their handiwork.

White River Marine Group also builds boats at several other locations across Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.