A company in the Kentucky TriModal Transpark is adding jobs, a boon for the industrial site, which has seen a drop in revenue it receives from payroll taxes.

Howa USA Inc. is moving its Richmond, Ind., operations to American Howa Kentucky in Bowling Green, its sister company.

The local plant, which employs 30 regular workers and 15 temporary employees, should employ about 65 workers by the end of July, when the move is expected to be complete. Those jobs will be a mixture of assembly and management positions, said Orson Nakase, senior manager at American Howa Kentucky.

About 24 full-time workers and 10 temporary workers were employed at the Indiana plant, and some workers already have transferred to Bowling Green. The local plant employs 10 more workers than it did two months ago, Nakase said.

Because the move is in progress, Nakase could not comment on the total number of people who will transfer to Bowling Green or the number of jobs that will be available.

The company, which makes automotive dash insulators, headliners and sunshade trim interior products, opened in Bowling Green in 2008. American Howa Kentucky and Howa USA are both divisions of Japan-based Howa Textile Industry Co.

Officials at the parent company decided to combine the facilities mainly due to the weak economy, according to the Palladium-Item in Richmond, Ind.

It’s one of three companies in the transpark – Bowling Green Metalforming and Cannon Automotive Solutions also operate in the park – that employ a total of about 1,000 workers.

The Inter-Modal Transportation Authority relies on a 1.5 percent wage assessment tax on transpark jobs. Because the recession and layoffs within the transpark, revenue from that tax decreased by about $93,900 in fiscal 2009 from fiscal 2008.

The principal payment on a $1.2 million bond is due in September, and the ITA says it will not be able to make that payment. Officials are working to refinance that bond to give the ITA more time to raise enough money. If the bond is not refinanced and the ITA cannot make the payment, city and county funds will be used to pay off the bond. The city and county backed $27.4 million in bonds to finance development of the 900-acre industrial site on the north side of Bowling Green.

Any additional jobs are “very important,” said Brian McBroom, ITA finance director. “The wage assessment is the main vehicle as far as revenue to pay down the debt related to the transpark. So jobs are obviously what creates that revenue.”

And wage assessment revenue has steadily increased since October. January’s wage assessment revenue was nearly $22,000 more than revenue in October 2009.

“Of course, in the transpark any additional jobs means additional money to the city and to the (wage assessment) district that operates the transpark,” said Dan Preston, Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce vice president of economic development. “So it’s good news anytime that any of our tenants have (new) jobs or bring in a new tenant.”

During its meeting Wednesday, the ITA approved spending $384,240 on extending Commonwealth Boulevard 700 feet, which will provide access to three parcels in the transpark.

The majority of the funds, $367,760, will come from a state grant to construct a rail spur in the park. Recently, the rail spur was completed with grant money left over.

The authority must spend the money by the end of June, or else it will go back to the state.

“We have a use it or lose it situation,” said Rick Wilson, the vice chairman for the authority.

The remaining $16,480 will come from the ITA’s general fund.

Engineering on the project already has begun, according to Marc Elliott, ITA vice president for property development.

Once the engineering is completed, the extension should be finished within 180 days.