Hear A-W's Concert

A-W's Holiday Concert performed by middle and high school choirs and bands will be aired on WNAX 570 AM Radio Station at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 24 and 11:30 a.m. Dec. 25.

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Saying he wasn't a politician, Little Sioux Corn Processors LLLP General Manager Steve Roe bluntly asked the Plymouth County Supervisors for some property tax incentives for the Akron Riverview Corn Processors LLC ethanol facility on Dec. 12. It was noted that the supervisors have discussed but not approved any written agreement for a 7-year tax abatement schedule with Merrill ethanol plant officials, and the supervisors wanted all agreements to be equitable for every ethanol plant in Plymouth County. “I think you need to keep in mind this one is going to be unique,” said Plymouth County Economic Development Director Gary Tucker. “(An agreement) can be uniform to some extent but there is uniqueness (with the Akron ethanol plant). There is going to be close to $2 million invested in road work, and you're talking only

$45,000 at the Merrill plant.” “There are other issues we need to look at,” he added. The thing you also need to remember and be aware of is Iowa does have a pipeline excise tax for people who use pipelines, said Tucker. Last year's pipeline excise tax bill on the Marcus ethanol plant

was $140,000, said Roe, adding that money goes directly to the counties, not the state. “Plymouth County will end up earning in excess of $250,000 in pipeline excise tax (from the

Akron ethanol plant),” said Roe. That tax revenue goes into the county's General Fund, said

Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond. “This plant is going to have twice the capacity (as the Merrill plant),” said Supervisor Craig Anderson. “I don't know how that affects the tax base.”

“We're here for some property tax incentives,” said Roe. “We realize it depends on what happens with 170th Street.” This county road is gravel, and with the amount of truck traffic

the ethanol plant will bring to the area, it needs to be paved between Iowa Highway 3 on the east side of Akron to the entrance of the ethanol plant, about one-fourth mile west of Iowa Highway 12, said Roe. By paving this county road, it will reroute the approximately 150 trucks from traveling through Akron each day, said Roe. “We're talking with the state about the road,” said Supervisor Jim Henrich. “It all hinges on the road,” said Roe. Supervisor John Schneider suggested a subcommittee of supervisors such as Henrich, Anderson and Greene be formed to negotiate the agreement with the Akron Riverview Corn Processors LLC. When supervisors pressed for Roe to set a deadline, he stated he'd like an answer by Feb. 1. “The pressure's on the DOT (officials) and (Plymouth County Engineer) Tom Rohe,” said Roe. Roe and Chief Financial Officer Gary Grotjohn presented a map showing where they were required to fill in areas with dirt at the ethanol plant site to bring the land out of the 100-year floodplain. They will be raising the plant site and along the railroad area at least 3 feet – FEMA requires a minimum

of 2.5 feet elevation work. The land may be raised higher than 3 feet depending on what road and railroad elevations are determined needed. “It'll take approximately 850,000 non-compacted yards (of dirt) to do the 3 feet,” said Roe, explaining it'll lower 120 acres 4 feet to get enough dirt. “It's a lot of dirt.” Roe told the supervisors their ethanol facility plan had been approved, but FEMA wouldn't give final approval until the dirt was in place. He noted that although they had

considered making a coal-fired ethanol facility, it will now be a 110 million gallons facility powered with natural gas. The reasons for the change were the availability of coal and the costs for construction of a coal-fired facility continuing to escalate. Roe told the supervisors that trucks will enter the facility about one-fourth mile west of the intersection of 170th Street and Iowa Highway 12. “We're going to grind 100,000 bushels of corn per day,” said Roe, adding the facility has to have the ability for trucks to get into the facility and dump fairly fast. Plans include unloading 40,000 bushels an hour at the site. He explained that the heaviest truck traffic would be from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. “It will be an extremely busy road and an extremely busy place,” said Roe, adding there is a lot of truck space at the site. “There is not going to be traffic backed up on 170th Street and Iowa Highway 12.” There will also be some truck traffic in the evenings and possibly on weekends. Weekend truck traffic will be “small,” said Roe, explaining that the sale of wet distiller grain would mean about 20 to 25 trucks on Saturdays. In addition, there may be some weekend truck traffic if they are short of corn. The Akron Riverview Corn Processors LLC will be a separate company from the Little Sioux Corn Processors LLLP but the latter will manage the Akron facility. Construction will be done by Fagen Inc. and will begin between July 1 and Oct. 1 of 2007. It will take 18 months to finish construction. They are targeting early 2009 for the startup of ethanol production. However, it could happen in late 2008. The railway at the facility is designed for loading 110-rail car units with either ethanol or dried distiller grains. Roe said they believe that trains of 110-rail car

units will be approved so ethanol can be supplied throughout the United States. There will be more than 100 construction workers onsite during the construction phrase, and that number may increase to 150 or so toward the final construction days. “They are going to be looking for

a place to live, a place to eat, and they always leave money before they go home on weekends,” said Roe. “There is a significant amount of money that's injected into the community.” “There will be some new businesses (from having an ethanol facility),” said Roe, explaining businesses to supply fuel and tires as well as trucking companies. The supervisors did not designate who would be on the subcommittee or make any decisions.