New manufacturing venture planned in Stephens County

Stephens County — Currahee Welding, a Toccoa, Ga.-based business, has added waste-management truck manufacturing to its portfolio of business offerings.

Rusty Harrison, owner of Currahee Welding, said the new venture, Currahee Waste Products, plans to hire between 10 and 12 employees and will manufacture residential rear-loading waste management equipment, also known as rear-loading garbage trucks.

“This is going to be a big venture, and it will be tough at first because we will be competing against larger companies,” Harrison said, according to a statement issued Thursday by the company. “But I believe we can get into the market and sell our product.”

The new business will run out of the same location as Currahee Welding in Eastanollee, Ga.

Currahee Welding has been in business since 1989, according to a statement issued by the Stephens County Development Authority.

Cam Parker, spokesman for the Development Authority, said businessmen like Rusty Harrison are key to job creation, according to the information released Thursday.

“The Development Authority’s task is to create jobs,” Parker said. “But to do so, we depend on people like (Rusty Harrison).”