by Thomaston Times
Lancaster Energy hopes to be up and running by the end of this year, the Thomaston-Upson Industrial Development Authority was told at their July meeting last week. The authority approved an amendment to the memorandum of understanding. They are looking at possibly garnering a bond from the TUIDA for up to $15 million, if alternative funding does not pan out.
The bio mass company has been a part of the community for the last two years, but ran into a few snags preventing them from opening in the old Thomaston Mills co-generation plant located off Edgewood Avenue. They use wood waste to manufacture electricity and will be producing around 16 and a half megawatts of electricity at the Thomaston plant. The company will employee around 17 people and is in the process of constructing the plant now with plans for it to open around the end of November or first of December.
Dan Rolling of Lancaster Energy stated the company has had a good experience working in Thomaston the past two years. They have been happy and pleased with the cooperation between their company and the TUIDA and have had no trouble there in finding suitable employees.
In other business, TUIDA Executive Director Kyle Fletcher told the board July has been a busy month for the office and prospect recruitment has picked up lately. Project Ski made an impromptu visit a few weeks ago and toured the Clearwater plant, however a lack of rail access determined that they were not interested in the building. Fletcher noted she will be resubmitting an application for the old Quad plant because she feels it may better suit the company?s needs.
She thanked board members Rusty Blackston, Steve Daniel and Chairman Billy Johnston for making the presentation to the company since she was out of town. Blackston told the rest of the board that during their visit the company made the comment that Thomaston was the only place of all the ones they had visited that day that seemed to be more community oriented and they were impressed by that.
Fletcher noted that she had heard the same thing and hopefully the company will be back, but she is optimistic about gaining more prospects for our area.
?After going 6-8 months without and information on prospects we?ve had a lot of activity lately. It sometimes can take years to see something through; it is a marathon, not a sprint and it is very tedious, but we are on the radar.?
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