While enjoying the August recess, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker made a stop in Vicksburg to tour the Golding Barge Line to talk about federal issues affecting the company and tour its new 13,000 square foot facility.

John Reid Golding served as the project manager for the new facility, which is being built next door to its current facility at 101 Lee St. in Vicksburg.

The facility is equipped with air conditioning units that can be raised and lowered in the event of flooding to allow electrical to work even if the building takes on water.

Austin Golding said his father Steve started Golding Barge Line in 1995. The company currently has 20 barges.

“Each one of them is 2,000-3,000 horsepower and has about a five to 10 person crew,” he said. “Each one of these is about a $3 to $6 million dollar investment.”

Trips can last from two to 20 days, and the barges travel around the nation.

Steve Golding said the company has equipment in Chicago, Louisville, Ky., New Orleans, Houston, Corpus Christi, Texas and elsewhere.

“But we’re employing people and buying supplies in Mississippi and dispatching these people to go all over the country to catch this equipment,” he said.

Golding Barge Line has about 230 employees — 30 in office and 200 who work on barges.

Wicker said visits like the one he took to Golding Barge Line Tuesday are important because of the number of people they impact.

“They’re a job creator,” he said. “It’s this sort of company where most of the jobs in America are created, not the big companies.”

Wicker said big businesses are great and Mississippi is glad to have them, but the vast majority of people who work in the United States work for small businesses.

“The takeaway here is this is a small business that’s found a niche and found a way to create 230 jobs and growing,” he said. “They said they’ve been adding about 30 jobs a year, so we don’t want to overburden them to the extent that they quit adding jobs.”

Steve said his company is the largest home-grown business in Vicksburg, but it’s still considered a small business in the industry.

“As far as our competition goes, we’re the smallest,” he said. “We’re competing with publicly traded companies.”

The competitive edge comes with the Goldings’ ability to offer increased customer service and cater to companies who use their barges, Austin said.

“We work directly for the major oil companies: Valero, Exxon, Phillips 66, Shell, BP,” he said. “What we’re responsible for that they’ve created, they want to make sure they don’t lose touch with us.”

Steve said the company often employs individuals with a high school diploma or GED with a starting salary of $30,000 to $35,000, and within a year the same employee will make $60,000 to $70,000.

“They’re gone from home eight months out of the year,” he said. “If they’re really sharp, from four and a half to five and a half years from entry, we can have them making $130,000 to $145,000 a year as a pilot.”

The Goldings talked with Wicker about federal governmental organizations they deal with including the Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers.

“The Coast Guard has really been handed the baton as our regulatory body,” Austin said.

In addition to federal regulatory bodies, Wicker also talked with the Goldings about the Affordable Care Act.

Steve said they have had to lessen benefits for their pilots as a result of the ACA.

“As a reward we paid all their group medical, dental and vision,” he said. “That was a perk, but we can’t do that anymore. It has to be the same for everybody.”

Austin added the coverage has gone up and the coverage is less comprehensive.

Wicker said he often takes similar trips often to get updates on the federal agencies his constituents work with.

“We’re always interested in hearing how business people are dealing with Obamacare,” he said. “What I heard today wasn’t that surprising that their costs have gone way up and the benefits are not as good. I hear that everywhere we go.”

Wicker said any company like Golding Barge Line is going to have federal dealings, and Wicker is there to make sure things run smoothly.