It’s not every day a congressman visits your place of work. On Aug. 17, 2023, U.S. Congressman Greg Murphy paid a visit to Gregory Poole Equipment Company’s branch in Washington, North Carolina. Murphy chose to visit Gregory Poole as part of an official trip to discuss concerns with citizens local to Beaufort County, NC.
While at Gregory Poole’s Washington branch, Murphy toured the facility and spoke with branch employees, fielding questions and providing answers about key topics. WNCT covered the congressman’s visit, and the tour highlighted how vital Gregory Poole is to the infrastructure of Eastern North Carolina.
“They’re, you know, the hub of Eastern North Carolina for all the things that are going on with mining, with forestry, some of the other industries we have out here East,” Murphy told WNCT.
The two main topics that came up during Murphy’s visit to Gregory Poole were workplace shortages and the importance of trade schools.
“Not just in Eastern North Carolina, but America, people do not want to do this type of industry anymore, even though it’s very lucrative, but it takes a lot of training to get to be a qualified technician,” Gregory Poole Branch Service Manager Scott Potter explained to WNCT.
Potter also expanded on the important role Gregory Poole plays in Eastern North Carolina, especially jobs that are necessary but might not cross people’s minds.
“If you ever look at a landfill, you notice most of the equipment is Caterpillar equipment, well someone has to service that. You can imagine everything that’s thrown in the trash is in that landfill, so we have people that have to go and crawl through that just to repair the machine,” Potter said.
With the congressman’s visit, the people of Gregory Poole were able to highlight just how essential the company’s work is to the Eastern North Carolina landscape and nationwide.