Chillicothe Councilman Alleges Federal Government Is Withholding Glove Contracts From Local Manufacturer
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A Chillicothe city councilman says the U.S. government is sitting on domestic personal protective equipment contracts that could keep a local glove manufacturer — housed at the former paper mill site now slated for a data center — afloat.
Councilman Richard McQuirt laid out the allegations in a lengthy public post this week, describing what he said he learned during a meeting city officials held with John Todoroki, principal owner of U.S. Paper Mill and U.S. Glove Co., after news broke that a data center was coming to the mill site.
According to McQuirt, that meeting was called so city leaders — caught off guard by the data center announcement — could get a fuller picture of Todoroki's plans to diversify the property. It was there, McQuirt said, that Todoroki told officials he is currently losing $5 million a month on the site. The former Chillicothe Paper Plant is a legacy site, with portions of the facility dating back more than 150 years. Over the years, the site has been marred by environmental issues. Just days before the announcement of the paper plant's closure, H.I.G. Capital — the Wall Street private equity firm that owns Pixelle Specialty Solutions — was in federal court over air pollution violations tied to the Chillicothe facility.
A pandemic-era pivot
McQuirt said Todoroki traced the losses back to the federal government's push, in the wake of COVID-19, to build a domestic supply of PPE after China and Malaysia — the two countries the U.S. had long relied on for gloves and other protective equipment — were unable to fill American orders during the pandemic.
Todoroki, according to McQuirt, designed and built his own manufacturing equipment from scratch and moved quickly to position his company to take on the federal government's nitrile glove orders. Last year, McQuirt said, Sen. Bernie Moreno and his team saw an opportunity to keep the paper mill site from becoming a vacant brownfield property and helped bring U.S. Medical Glove in to produce gloves there.
Production lines, but few orders
McQuirt said the company now has several production lines ready to run but only two federal contracts in hand — one with the Transportation Security Administration and one with the Army — which he said fall well short of the volume of orders Todoroki says he was promised when he took on the project.
The more serious allegation, McQuirt said, came next: that unnamed officials in Washington are declining to shift PPE contracts away from Chinese and Malaysian suppliers because doing so would cost more, and that gloves manufactured in the U.S. are being mixed with foreign-made gloves and packaged as "USA Made" products.
McQuirt said he raised the claims with staff for Ohio Senators Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno this week, and that Moreno's staff told him everything Todoroki described in the meeting checked out.
Unverified claims, local stakes
J News Network has not independently confirmed the allegations regarding contract withholding or mislabeled gloves, and has not obtained comment directly from Todoroki, the offices of Sens. Husted or Moreno, or federal procurement officials. McQuirt's account of the Todoroki meeting and the claims relayed from Moreno's staff have not been corroborated by documents or on-the-record statements from those parties.
In his post, McQuirt argued the matter extends beyond the fate of the Chillicothe site, calling it a question of national security and government accountability, and he urged residents to contact their federal representatives.
"This is a matter not only of salvation and jobs for the paper mill site but a matter of national security and a matter of how we hold the people governing us to their word," McQuirt wrote.
McQuirt's full Facebook statement can be viewed below:
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Source: Chillicothe Councilman Alleges Federal Government Is Withholding Glove Contracts From Local Manufacturer
