CLEARFIELD – With the Lawrence Township Cornfield site in limbo, BioEnergy International LLC has been looking harder at the Clearfield Technology Park in Clearfield Borough. In fact, a public information session is planned for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Third Ward Fire Hall.
The planned project was announced in May 2006 by Gov. Edward G. Rendell. The project has a large chunk of state grant money attached to it, but only if the project is done in Clearfield County.
The main plant will have 55 mainly skilled workers and the pilot plant 15. Because the proposed site is not in a tax-free zone, it will be taxable on a local and state level.
According to Corinne Young, director for government and public affairs for BioEnergy, on top of the jobs created at the main ethanol plant and pilot plant, there is the potential for around 100 spin-off jobs.
Spin-off jobs are not offered by the ethanol plants, but are more of an offshoot of them. If an ethanol producer has a byproduct that another company can use, such as carbon dioxide, there is the potential that a business that uses that byproduct can move in and create more jobs.
Young said that while they estimated 100 spin-off jobs, industry gurus project more for a plant their size.
“With the synergies of Sunnyside and our plant, jobs could range from scientific, high-tech biotech jobs associated with our cellulosic program working with Penn State, to trade jobs that support operating and maintaining the plants, to transportation and jobs like rail jobs,” said Young.
Rob Swales, executive director of the Clearfield County Economic Development Authority and the Clearfield County Industrial Development Corp., said other ethanol plants have had spin-off jobs that include dry ice producers and food service industries.
BioEnergy is a time-driven project, according to Swales. BioEnergy already has a buyer for their ethanol lined up with a five-year contract in place.
“They have agreements in place,” said Swales. “Time is of the essence.”
At a June 26 meeting, members of neighboring communities voiced their displeasure at BioEnergy’s choice of the cornfield site in Lawrence Township. For BioEnergy to utilize that site for their ethanol production and pilot plants, the Lawrence Township Supervisors would need to change the zoning in that area from suburban residential to industrial limited.
Residents voiced concerns over things such as noise, light and odors.
Since that meeting on June 26, no formal request for a zoning change has been made.
BioEnergy began looking at the cornfield site after viewing at a number of other sites. One notable site was in Decatur Township, BioEnergy’s original No. 1 choice, while another one was the Clearfield Firemen’s Industrial Park.
On May 30, the Clearfield County Commissioners held a special meeting to grant an option agreement on the land at the cornfield the site to BioEnergy.
Swales said that ethanol plants have very specific infrastructure needs. If the infrastructure is not there, it makes the project all the more costly.
Both sites had their deficiencies, according to representatives of BioEnergy at the public meeting on June 26. For the Decatur Township site, it was the land, for the Firemen’s Park, it was the rail and land.
“To efficiently deliver the corn shipments, a continuously moving unit train with a minimum of 40 cars is used. With the grade of the spur, RJ Corman could not push more than a few rail cars up into the site at a time,” wrote Mark McCracken in a letter to GantDaily.
“The production process will require approximately 200 rail cars each week, so it would be impossible to shuttle three cars at a time from the rail yard up to the industrial park,” added McCracken.
“I am also in the process of getting information and feedback from other communities that have existing ethanol facilities that have been built since 2000,” wrote McCracken. “I received the following quote from the chairman of the Sheridan Township Planning Commission concerning an ethanol facility owned by the Andersons in Albion, Mich. My questions concerned odors, noise and distance to residential development.
“Any odor is concentrated directly to the facility itself. Outside of about 200 yards (600 feet), there are no odors. What you smell is similar to baking bread for a brief instance, once or twice a day. The facility is approximately 300 to 400 yards (900 to 1200 feet) from residential areas. Noise is not an issue. The noise is continuous 24/7 but it is a low level white noise, not loud noise. There is a highway that borders the residential area, which generates more noise than the ethanol plant.”
McCracken also provided correspondence he had with officials from Coshocton County, Ohio, home of another ethanol plant. McCracken was answered by T.J. Justice, executive director of the Coshocton Port Authority.
Justice told McCracken that the ethanol plant has been good for the community in several ways. One is that the payment in lieu of taxes made to the local school district. In addition, Justice pointed out that public infrastructure improvements have also been made to support the project, providing for other ancillary benefits.
Although he noted that the project was a large undertaking, there were no issues that Justice deemed “insurmountable.” He said many were resolved with weekly conference calls between the company, the city and engineers. And even with that, he said he would support an ethanol project if he had to do it all over again.
At the time he wrote to McCracken, Justice said the plant plans to employ at least 41 full-time positions. The construction jobs also peaked at about 200.
McCracken said that talks between BioEnergy and the Firemen’s Park broke off May 30.
That led those officials to look at the Clearfield Technology Park in Clearfield Borough as well as the cornfield in Lawrence Township.
Swales said that at the cornfield, the project would not run into issues that it would at the Firemen’s Park, such as noise and light pollution.
“With the cornfield site a lot of those problems would disappear,” said Swales. “Light and noise would be minimal.”
He also stated that the majority of the needed infrastructure is there.
“People need to realize that if the project does not find a site, they’re leaving,” said Swales. “It could jeopardize a significant economic development project.”
As for the zoning at the cornfield site, Swales said that it was an oversight that it was not zoned to commercial when the rest of the professional office park was zoned. He also added that the master plan from the office park had roadways planned from the current park to the cornfield site, a sign that there were plans to develop that area.
The cornfield site is also not a tax-free zone. Swales provided estimates from the Clearfield County Assessment Office on what kind of taxes the ethanol plant might have to pay if it were located at the cornfield site.
Based on 2007 millage, the county would receive $23,317 in taxes from the plant, Lawrence Township would receive $19,986, and the Clearfield Area School District would receive $93,090.
Lawrence Township Supervisor Bill Lawhead heard of the project after a Clearfield County Commissioner’s meeting in May. After the June 26 meeting, Lawhead said that the supervisors would look hard and consider the concerns of nearby residents.
“I’d like to see it in Lawrence Township,” said fellow supervisor Dan Mitchell.
Lawhead said that no request for a zoning change had been requested. Without that request, the supervisors would not begin that process.
Lawhead also offered this comment about zoning: “One thing that’s constant about zoning is change. We have to adapt.”
Lawhead has often referred to the BioEnergy project as the sparkplug that Clearfield needs to get going.
“If we don’t get it in the township I’d like to see it in the borough,” said Lawhead.
Swales described the situation with the Clearfield Technology Park. For BioEnergy to move into the tech park, they would essentially need to purchase the whole park. That would include the CCEDC’s new building and an existing machine shop. It would also require some rail work and the possible relocation of two businesses within the CCEDC building.
Swales noted that the land is already zoned industrial. The infrastructure is already in place and that the rail lines are their. The site is also zoned as a Keystone Opportunity Zone, making it tax free, at least until Dec. 31, 2010.
“Major projects don’t pop up every day,” said Swales. “They’re (BioEnergy) working on the numbers.”
Which brings the project to where it is now. After the meeting in Lawrence Township officials at BioEnergy continued to look at viable sites for their plants.
On Wednesday night representatives from BioEnergy, Clearfield Borough Council and county officials will hold an informational session with the public at the Third Ward Fire Hall at 7 p.m.