Stupp Bridge Co., a division of Stupp Bros. Inc., was named the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2006 Industry of the Year this morning.

The annual award recognizes an outstanding local industry for its contribution to the community.

Chamber Chairman Rick Kelley presented the award.

Kelley said one of the great parts of the Bowling Green economy is the diversity of its industry.

&#8220We’re very fortunate,” he said.

Past recipients of the award include last year’s RC Components, Houchens Industries in 2004, Southern Foods in 2003, and several others in previous years.

Reuben Netherland, Stupp Bridge Co. vice president and general manager, accepted the award for the company, which employs 115 people.

&#8220To be selected as industry of the year is a great honor,” Netherland said.

Netherland said the search for a relocation site east of St. Louis led his company on a journey through nine states in more than 30 cities in the late 1990s.

The first site in Bowling Green he was shown was &#8220unfeasible to develop” because of the rocky soil, he said.

&#8220The Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce hadn’t given up on us and continued to look for a parcel,” Netherland said.

After much coaxing, Stupp Bros. Inc. came to Bowling Green in 1998.

&#8220After working and living in Bowling Green for the last seven years, I can truly say that we made the right decision for us,” he said.

Stupp Bridge Co. is in the Southcentral Industrial Park off Nashville Road.

Stupp Bridge aims to carve out its niche in the steel bridge market with larger sized bridges.

&#8220We’re developing larger and larger fabrication capabilities,” Netherland said. &#8220We’ve got to develop technologically to stay ahead of the steel bridge market.”

Stupp Bridge Company, which boasts an efficient bridge fabrication 360,000-square-foot facility, has completed 321 projects.

Stupp Bros. Inc. celebrates its 150th anniversary this year after Johann Stupp founded the company in 1856.

J. Stupp and Bros. Blacksmiths was started not long after Stupp settled in St. Louis. The shop focused primarily on repairing tools and machinery parts.

In 1915, Johann Stupp died at the age of 88, leaving his business to his sons who continue to manage the company.

Fourth and fifth generations of the family run the company, which includes Stupp Bridge Company, Hammert’s Iron Works, Inc., Stupp Corp., Bayou Coating and Midwest Bank Center.

The Stupp Bros. Bridge and Iron Co. Foundation makes generous contributions to many local and national charities, including a four-year scholarship awarded annually to support the college education for a child of a Stupp employee.

The recognition is based on a company’s chamber partnership, presence in the community, impact to the area’s economy with continued growth and investment in the community, a demonstrated civic agenda, and other criteria.

The Industry of the Year will be honored at the Industry Appreciation Banquet on Thursday, Sept. 28 at the Sloan Convention Center, according to Mark Cornwell, Industry Appreciation Committee Chair.

The Industry of the Year announcement kicks off the Chamber’s Industry Appreciation Week at the end of the month.

– For more information, contact the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce at 781-3200.