_{By: Brianna Bailey}

_{The Journal Record}

TUTTLE - Tulsa-based chemical supplier Brainerd Chemical has plans to build a new plant and railway terminal on 31 acres of farmland here.

The new plant, which will serve as a distribution center for Brainerd to transport chemicals to its corporate and industrial customers, is expected to create about a dozen or more new jobs in the area.

Brainerd packages and supplies more than 15 million pounds of chemicals each month to be used in research, medical, agricultural, industrial and oil-field operations across the country.

"We've been in Oklahoma for 51 years and we like expanding in Oklahoma," said Mat Brainerd, chief executive of Brainerd Chemical. "Traditionally, we grow when times are slower so we can be prepped for the busy times. This economic cycle is going to turn around eventually and we need to keep being positive about the future."

The company paid $7,000 an acre for the land and has plans to invest $4 million into the area over the next few years.

Construction on the first $2 million phase of the project will begin within the next few weeks. The company will embark on a second $2 million phase in two years.

Brainerd has plans to build a chemical tank farm and warehouses at the Tuttle site. The plant also will include a railway spur that will branch off of the nearby Stillwater Central Railroad. The short-line railroad has tracks that run from Sapulpa through Oklahoma City and through Lawton and Snyder. The first 2,000 feet of the railway spur is expected to be completed within the next 60 days. An additional 1,500 feet of railway will be built during the second phase of the project in two years.

Brainerd already owns a railway terminal in Clinton and a plant in North Carolina in addition to its headquarters in Tulsa.

The new distribution center in Tuttle will help the company better serve its customers in the Oklahoma City area and also open up opportunities for expansion, Brainerd said.

The company ships numerous chemicals used in producing oil and natural gas. Brainerd tanker trucks will ship chemicals from the Tuttle plant to customers in Texas and Kansas.

"We just can't get enough product in the area fast enough," Brainerd said.