When the company celebrated its 100th anniversary, Scott Nadler, senior director, Communications and Public Relations for Siemens Government Technologies, Inc. said in a press release “in 1916, the steam turbine company that today is Dresser-Rand’s Wellsville business commenced operation. Now part of Siemens Government Technologies, workers at the Wellsville facility produce steam turbines for the global energy and power generation industry as well as for the U.S. Navy.” He called the anniversary “a milestone.” He said at the time in 2016 that there were no plans for layoffs. Less than four years later, the company's Wellsville operation will just be a footnote.
During the past several months, as the company sold some of its assets, the workforce began to scatter. Some went with new owner Curtiss-Wright, with corporate headquarters based in Davidson, North Carolina (C-W is leasing some space in Wellsville for a few dozen workers). Curtiss-Wright planned to moved Wellsville projects to Summerville, South Carolina. Others were transferred to the Olean location for Siemens, although the pandemic has sent those employees home to work for now.
There has been no shortage of rumors about the future of the facility at 37 Coats Street. No matter what tomorrow brings, the legacy of those manufacturing days will be kept alive by pictures and stories told by those helped solidify Wellsville as a global manufacturing force for the energy industry.
