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1/07/09 The Daily Courier:
EXPANSION PLANS: Yavapai Exceptional Industries expanding worksite in Prescott Valley By KEN HEDLER

Rick Mouw performs piecework by placing tiny keys for Ruger weapons into plastic bags in a cramped, noisy classroom at Antelope Point Industries here.

Mouw, 43, of Prescott Valley started receiving training from Yavapai Exceptional Industries Inc. in 1987, and has worked at Antelope Point Industries since YEI! opened it in May 1998. YEI! provides job training and work for about 60 developmentally disabled adults at the location.

He said he enjoys the work and making friends, and looks forward to YEI! expanding with a new building and remodeling the existing building at 2727 Lake Valley Road. It will mean more room, he said.

Paul Thomas, 46, of Prescott Valley expressed similar views.

"I love to make tables and benches" in the woodshop, he said. "I'd like to get a new shop to work in."

Thomas, Mouw, other YEI! clients and the staff believe they will benefit from the expansion plans that involve a new building of 3,200 square feet and remodeling the existing 6,200-square-foot metal building. The new building will be on a half-acre site that Ray Hill donated.

"We have definitely outgrown this building," said employment coordinator Erica Teolis, who has worked at Antelope Point Industries for six years. "Right now, we are eating lunch in our work areas."

The expansion also would enable YEI! to respond to growth along the Highway 69 corridor in Prescott Valley, said Brad Newman, YEI!'s executive director since 1976.

Newman said Antelope Point Industries started with a landlocked site that lacked utilities and had only 16 clients. Nearby BetterBilt Aluminum provided driveway access from Lake Valley Road, and Fann Contracting Inc. of Prescott graded the site, he said.

YEI! hired Fann and Feavel Homes of Prescott to do the expansion project, Newman said. Prescott architect Glenn Olsen, who designed the initial building, designed the expansion.

Newman added contributions from tradespeople will help to keep the cost down to about $350,000.

The new building will house the woodshop and storage space, which is currently upstairs in the existing building, Newman said.

The new building also will incorporate "green" building materials, Prescott Valley Community Development Director Richard Parker said. Parker said a meeting a week ago with Newman went "extremely well," adding the town building code would enable YEI! to use green materials.

The green materials will include the fly ash byproduct from the Navajo Power Plant near Page and recycled plastic for siding, Newman said. The building also will have solar panels on the roof, low-energy lighting and catchments that divert rainfall to landscaping the grounds.

The new building will create additional space in the existing building, Newman said. He said the assembly area will move into the current woodshop, adding the contractors will convert the offices and kitchen into an area containing break space, two bathrooms, a locker room and shower.

The contractors will remodel the existing classroom to accommodate offices, and will enclose an outdoor ramada for a classroom and break area.

Newman said the project will begin during the spring and take 10 months to complete.

While the existing building is remodeled, the YEI! clients will use the main office on Washington Avenue in Prescott and the Armadilla Wax Works plant on Industrial Way in Prescott Valley, he said..

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