By Marilee Johnson
South Platte Sentinel News Editor

The Logan County Commissioners were expected to green light “Project Green” this morning to close a lengthy process in securing an anchor tenant for the new Logan County Industrial Park. After a series of special meetings and executive sessions since Friday, Logan County Planner Jim Neblett said last night “Our negotiating team has spent all day negotiating the final agreement and has completed the task.” Prior to an executive session Tuesday afternoon, Neblett told the Logan County Commissioners “Your requests have been met and all matters have been negotiated.” After reviewing the negotiated document – a development agreement – in the closed-door session the commissioners set a meeting for this morning to formally consider a resolution approving the development agreement.

“Project Green” has been identified as Star Clean Oil LLC according to the resolution, however, the Logan County principal players are bound by a non-disclosure directive from releasing further information about the company/project. Listed in the 2010 “proposed developments” by the Logan County Economic Development Corporation, Project Green” was included as an industrial manufacturer which would provide 50 above-average paying jobs. Neblett said the company will occupy 50 acres in the newly zoned industrial park located east of Sterling on Highway 6.

Star Clean Oil recycles motor oil as a “green” industry.“ Through the efforts of the Board of County Commissioners, the Logan County Economic Development Corporation and others, we will have a great new industry to come to the community as an anchor for our industrial park to provide solid, good paying jobs,” Neblett said. “We’re looking forward to the ground-breaking.” If everything continues as planned, Neblett said construction could start in he spring of 2011, contingent on the company’s funding. Neblett also noted that development agreements are standard for subdivisions, individual industries and commercial property. He said a development agreement is a ovenant attached to the land to ensure a transfer of ownership maintains the same purpose.

The Logan County Industrial Park was recently finalized through an exchange agreement for 100 acres of land from the Colorado Board of Land Commissioners. With the sale of 50 acres to Star Clean Oil, the company will invest their capital to build their plant and rail access.

Commissioner Jim Edwards, who is out-of-town on vacation, joined Chairman Debbie Zwirn and Commissioner Jack McLavey via an Internet video conference system during Tuesday’s discussion and the board was scheduled to again meet this morning (Wednesday) to finalize contracts with the company.

In other County business, the Logan County Planning Commission reviewed three subdivision exemptions and made recommendations for approval of each which included an application by Kenneth Roelle to exempt a 9.88 acre tract from a 320 acre parcel located on the west side of County Road 32 near County Road 78 for the installation of a natural gas line connection and meter site for the East Cheyenne Gas Storage Facility, an application by Loren Johnson and Heidi Johnson to exempt a 5 acre tract from a 112 acre parcel located at 18269 Highway 6, and an application by Matt Johnson to exempt a 10 acre tract from a 160 acre parcel located at 10814 C.R. 63. All three applications for subdivision exemption will be forwarded for formal consideration of the Logan County Commissioners Tuesday.

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By Callie Jones, Journal-Advocate staff writer

STERLING — Business was the theme at the Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday.

Dick Pickett, executive director of the Northeast-East Central Colorado Small Business Development Center, and Rich O’Connell, executive director of the Logan County Economic Development Corporation, spoke about small business and economic development.

“Out of all the communities that we service Sterling has been one of the warmest in receiving the Small Business Development Center,” Pickett said.

His center covers the area from the Wyoming border, down to I-70 and over to Kansas.

The SBDC has three focuses.

“All those areas of focus go to trying to maximize — we try to help the small businessman maximize their potential as a small business, doing everything they can possibly do to get as much revenue as they can coming into their business,” Pickett said.

One area of focus is to provide free business counseling to small businesses. Any small business can come in for counseling. Pickett said most of their clients right now have 20 or less employees.

During that process, they usually encourage small businesses to develop a business plan if they don’t have one. Pickett said about 90 percent of the people who come see them don’t have one when they come, but 90 percent of their clients that leave them do have one.

Heidi Zajic-Eckland is the local small business counselor for the Sterling area. When she first started, the plan was to have her provide counseling two days a month. After a couple of weeks, they had to increase that to one day a week.

“Depending on how that goes, we’ll just see how much more we do,” Pickett said.

Their second focus is education. They provide education through a number of seminars they put on. Also, this year they’re trying to use technology so they have one webinar that runs a couple times a month. They’re also going to try to do at least one broadcast this year, with a speaker in one location and that will be broadcast live to the locations in the area.

The third focus is to try to try to help small businesses get funding.

“We try to put the strategy together that will help them be successful with their financial request,” Pickett said. “It’s challenging today, we’re not always successful, but the small businesses that we’ve been able to help have been very appreciative and we have helped a number of them.”

O’Connell spoke about the newest study of the Sterling area’s retail site done by Buxton Corp. The study is effective December 2009, so it looks at the 12 months prior to December 2009.

“This was not the best economic climate for measuring your retail site assessment, however, it was down slightly, but nearly the same amount of dollars spent by households in our region during this time frame,” he said. “Overall, as far as compared with the state and the nation, we did fairly well.”

The process that Buxton uses is called community ID and it is a proprietary process that tries to measure the psychographics as defined as the propensity to consume of the households that are existing within the market area.

“Different households consume different products and services, they try to measure what our retail site, what types of households live there,” O’Connell said.

Sterling’s retail site is 10th Avenue and West Main Street, that is considered this area’s market center.

One of the study looks at is general demographics. For those demographics they don’t just look at the limits of the city of Sterling, but the 15 minute drive time around Sterling. O’Connell said that population estimate is 18,809.

Also, the study gives a measurement of the total buying power, the measurable dollars spent by households in the secondary market area.

The study also shows a leakage analysis, something Buxton introduced this year. They measure what type of leakage or anti-leakage the Sterling area is experiencing on major trade areas.

“We are attracting more people, more dollars in and the leakage surplus is a surplus of $8,872,000, so we are actually drawing dollars that would be expected to be sent elsewhere into our area,” O’Connell said. “Which tells us that our retailers are doing a credible job of drawing people in. When people come in, they buy things and that’s good news.”

Some of the things he said the study showed are that many people are buying clothing outside of the community. Expenditures of women’s clothing is higher, men’s clothing is practically nonexistent and not too many children’s clothing item are purchased here either.

However, the jewelry stores are doing pretty well; they’re above expectations.

O’Connell said the study also showed people in this area buy a lot diapers and a lot of Nascar products.

This study is important for retailers. Community leaders, including O’Connell, with be using this study when they go to the International Council of Shopping Centers, in Las Vegas, May 23-27.

“The retailers are looking at very closely what kind of households are here, what types of products do they buy, what kind of income do they have to spend on those products, all that goes into their calculation,” O’Connell said. “What we want to do is make this available to retailers to make decisions based on what kind of products they can carry.”

One of the goals of the LCEDC is to get this information out in a format that’s easy to access. They haven’t devised a plan to do that yet though.

However, anyone who is interested in learning more about this data can contact O’Connell at 521-7196. Also, if you’re a member of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce you can get a disk with information on it.

“What we’re trying to do here is make a successful match, our community and our retail site assessment, with a retailer or business that wants to be in that type of community,” O’Connell said.

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By Forrest Hershberger, Journal-Advocate editor

STERLING — Thursday evening, the Logan County Economic Development Corporation (LCEDC) held its annual meeting.

This meeting reported on the financial health of the organization, achievements and goals, and election of new board members.

One of the first reports was by Mike Lauer on the fiscal condition of the organization.

“Financially, we did have a good year,” Lauer said.

Lauer added that financial stability is not the sole purpose of the LCEDC. The mission statement of the organization says that the “Logan County Economic Development Corporation is to provide leadership and assistance to Gary Nichols, left, and Sterling Mayor Larry Fetzer share a few thoughts during the Logan County Economic Development Corporation meeting Thursday. (Forrest Hershberger/Journal-Advocate)all Logan County communities in their efforts to grow, while improving their economic stability and diversity.”

LCEDC President Rob Nichols noted that the economic condition of Sterling and Logan County, while better off than many other regions in the state and nation, are still feeling the impact of the recession. The city of Sterling reported that taxable sales decreased slight through Dec. 2009 from $195,587,000 to $190,126,300, a loss of 2.8 percent. Retail sales in Logan County through Oct. 31, 2009 were at $394,408,000 to compared to $450,860,000 during the same period in 2008. for a loss of 12.5 percent.
The Colorado Department of Revenue retail sales data shows 2009 retail sales estimated at $530,654,000 for all of Logan County, down almost $50 million from 2008.

Nichols posed the question many business owners and community leaders are trying to answer: “Are we in a downturn, is the economy climbing out of it, or are things getting worse?” The question is easier than the answer, according to Nichols. He said it is too early, and too difficult, to predict the economic trend. What he did say is that businesses need to stay forward-thinking Sterling City Manager Joe Kiolbasa, left, and Logan County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kim Sellers discuss business during a meet and greet at the Logan County Economic Development Corp. meeting Thursday. (Forrest Hershberger/Journal-Advocate)in order to survive the economy.

“We think that when there a downturn, it is hard to pick up, but when (the economy) turns around, (the companies who stayed in business) are the ones who succeed,” Nichols said.

He said finding ways to conduct business in more efficient methods during a downturn economy can benefit the company who continues those practices when the healthy economy returns.

LCEDC Director Rich O’Connell reported on several advancements in business for 2009. NextEra Energy Resources completed another 81 wind turbines, each producing 175 megawatts (MW) of electricity for a total of 608 MW of energy. An additional 197 towers have been permitted, so more work is expected in 2010/2011, O’Connell said.

OREG-4, a joint energy recovery project of Highline Electric, Omart, Kinder Morgan and Tri-State, began operations in June. The project generates 3.2 MW of energy from the Trailblazer pipleline, according to O’Connell’s report.

O’Connell also reported that LCEDC assisted nine new or expanded businesses, representing $480 million in new capital investments and 26 new full-time jobs. ARRA Stimulus funding in amounted to $650,000 for workforce and job creation, $431,000 for weatherization/low income and $1.4 million for public schools.

There are some business ventures the LCEDC is pursuing. One of the projects is “Project Green.” Project Green, while not fully identified, is expected to be in the new industrial park LCEDC is working with Logan County to design.

“The process (of Project Green) has been going on for about 18 months,” O’Connell said.

The plans are for the company to begin construction at the new industrial park this year.

“It is an environmentally friendly business,” he said. He said the company is expected to start with 50 positions of above-average pay.

The industrial park is a 100-acre site about 2 1/2 miles east of Sterling off of U.S. Highway 6. The LCEDC is also working on agreement that will provide rail service to the industrial park as well.

Other developments expected to occur this year are:
• Opening of the David Walsh Cancer Center at Sterling Regional MedCenter in August,
• Construction of a new dorm at Northeastern Junior College,
• Extension of the runway at the Sterling Municipal Airport
• And, construction of a new water treatment facility in Sterling.

Steve Meter announced the LCEDC membership needed to elect three new board members Thursday. He said the membership needed to select three members from six candidates. The candidates were: Lance Bolton, Persiphone James, Brad Lebsock, Dan long, David McClain and Alex Wright. The membership selected Lance Bolton and Dan Long each to serve a second three-year term, and Alex Wright to serve his first term on the board.

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