Logan County Economic Development Corporation
Executive Director Monthly Activity Summary
March 2011

The following summary provides a highlight of the various monthly activities for the Logan County Economic Development Corporation (“LCEDC”).  All activities are not described in the summary, but rather some of the more visual activities of the LCEDC are presented.

General Meetings:

March 1- Conference call with Josh Oakes, Project Scorpion site location

March 3- Group of 20 from Sterling/Logan attended Bottom-Up in Haxtun

March 4- Lance Bolton, Loretta Davidson, Sandy Glaser, Kim Sellers, Jim Neblett
               Rich O’Connell held breakfast meeting with Colorado OEDIT team.

March 14- Jim Neblett, Todd Swedlund (Sterling Federal Credit Union) and I
                  attended Gov. Hickenloopers’ rural economic summit with U.S. Secretary
                  of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

March 16- I attended the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy conference at NJC.

March 16- Local team for Bottom-Up plan met at Courthouse

March 17- CED community assessment committee met

March 25- I attended the monthly NECO meeting in Haxtun

March 25- I was the keynote speaker at the Logan County Chamber Awards Banquet

March 26- I spoke at the Logan County Republican Breakfast

March 29-31- I appeared on the KPMX and KNNG radio programs for Bottom-Up
                       and my monthly CrossTalk.

March 31- Bottom-Up local team held a public meeting to gather input for the Logan
                 County plan due to the Governor’s office by April 15.

Economic developments: 

Project Green/New Industrial Park- UPDATE 4/4: We have been responding to due diligence requirements for Star Clean Oil, LLC, in connection with their financing commitment. Jim Michaels, Managing Partner, stated that their private equity financing is nearly complete and they are hoping to break ground in 2011.  They have selected a general contractor and any construction inquires can be made to Rich O’Connell.
Project Rebar- UPDATE 3/1: Our last information received in Feb. was that their engineering firm is working on the Sterling site plan. UPDATE 4/1: Jim Neblett and I were able to reach Rebar’s plant manager in Brazil.  Sterling is their #1 site and they have submitted a rail site plan to both BNSF and UPRR.  BNSF has approved and Rebar’s president is working with UP to finalize the switch and track layout.

Project Scorpion- UPDATE 4/1: We are planning to meet with Dwayne Romero, new Executive Director of Colo OEDIT, to determine a strategy should Scorpion not move ahead at the Wyoming site.     

Sterling Municipal Airport/ Crosson Field- The airport received FAA permission to re-open on Dec. 8. UPDATE 3/1: Joe Kiolbasa, Larry Fetzer and Rich O’Connell met with an airport operations consultant to discuss future development at the airport.  UPDATE 4/1: City is in the process of evaluating consultant proposals for future operations.

Three Prototype Buildings- UPDATE 3/1:  The building committee has selected three contractors for each of the three prototype buildings and we are now ready to proceed when a future client requests a new building. UPDATE 4/1: Bruce Glass recommends that we hold the first lottery selection now, so that the selected contractors know who will have the first bid opportunity.

UPDATE (4/30/10):  Colorado Highlands Wind, LLC, project north of Fleming continues as a viable project and the developers are working hard to finalize power purchase agreements and transmission issues. NO PROGRESS TO REPORT

UPDATE (4/30/10):  East Cheyenne Underground Gas Storage is planning to begin construction and development of the gas storage facility this summer. UPDATE 11/1: Merchant Energy Partners, LLP, continues to work in the area southwest of Peetz with well evaluating and additional drilling. NO PROGRESS TO REPORT

Filed under: In The News by LCEDC