Article featured on LancasterOnline.

Spartan Motors will get $678,000 in state grants and tax credits for an upgrade of its Ephrata plant that is expected to create 186 jobs over the next three years.

The company is investing $2.4 million at the former Ladder Tower plant at 64 Cocalico Creek Road where it will make truck bodies for the company’s line of Utilimaster vehicles.

The new employees will be added to the 76 already working for the company in Ephrata.

The expansion comes after Spartan Motors got a $214 million contract from the U.S. Postal Service for 2,000 delivery trucks, the largest single order in the company’s history.

On Thursday, Governor Tom Wolf announced the funding proposal for Spartan Motors, which includes a $300,000 Pennsylvania First Grant and $378,000 in Job Creation Tax Credits to be distributed when the new jobs are created.

Wolf also lauded the company’s investment.

Spartan, based in Charlotte, Michigan, is an international company with 2,200 employees and annual revenue of $591 million.

Spartan came to Lancaster County in January 2017 through the $36.3 million acquisition of Smeal Fire Apparatus, which owned the Ephrata plant.