I am Brian Blair, the plant manager for the Southwire factory in Flora, Ill., a facility that has been operational since 1974, and is a long-term employer and economic contributor in Clay County. In Flora, we produce high quality, large conductors that are the backbone of the electrical grid.

In your Oct. 12 article on the Rock Island Clean Line project, you quote a “Block RICL” spokesperson, Mary Mauch, as stating that according to her sources, Southwire Company doesn’t have the facilities or the employees for the wire to actually be produced in Illinois.

While I have never spoken to Ms. Mauch and am unaware of the sources that she references, I would like to clear up a misconception. The Southwire Flora facility routinely produces quantities for projects using volumes similar to, or greater than, the volumes projected for use by the Rock Island Clean Line project. Both our Flora facility and our employees proudly and successfully manufacture this kind of product routinely.