HAMILTON TOWNSHIP – A Boston-based company’s plans to build a merchant power plant means more than 300 construction jobs and 30 long-term operations jobs – it also offers a sure-fire attraction for future industry, development authorities said.

Friday, June 23, 2000

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP – A Boston-based company’s plans to build a merchant power plant means more than 300 construction jobs and 30 long-term operations jobs – it also offers a sure-fire attraction for future industry, development authorities said.

"There’s a unique advantage in an electrical producer," Lawrence Economic Development Corporation executive director Pat Clonch said.

"It’s like a magnet."

For the last three months, the LEDC has provided information and support to CME North American Merchant Energy LLC as it surveyed a 277-acre site between old U.S. 52 and the Ohio River in Hamilton Township.

Thursday, president and managing director William Martin addressed county, township, village and school board officials gathered at the Hamilton Township Volunteer Fire Department, detailing his plans for a natural gas-fired wholesale power plant.

In another three months, the company will make a final decision on the project, but Martin offered assurances that Lawrence County will see a positive decision.

"If I felt there was some fatal flaw right now, I would not be wasting your time here," Martin said. "We’re optimistic that the diligence period we are in will not hold fatal flaws."

CME plans to start construction on a 1,000 megawatt power plant in about a year, take a year and a half to build it, then sell electricity to power brokers and other clients.

The company has filed an interconnection study with American Electric Power – it will use AEP’s Hanging Rock substation to distribute electricity.

It has an option to buy the old Goldcamp farm property, referred to as the 277-acre Rollyson site.

And, the first environmental study is finished, with no notation of hazardous waste problems, Martin said.

"In the diligence period we’ll spend three months learning what problems we might have, whether it’s floodplain or whatever it is," Martin said.

That period also includes finishing an air emissions study.

"Once we get to that point, we can confirm that we can do it," Martin said, adding that heavy engineering would follow quickly.

Financing for the $400 million project and construction would follow engineering. CME wants the plant to begin commercial operation in January 2004.

The project would generate between 200 and 300 construction jobs during the intervening years, Martin said.

Construction would not involve a lot of high-tech operations and CME could ship large plant components by barge to the site. Martin also said he will be sensitive to local labor issues, employing union workers when possible.

The plant would employ about 30 laborers – from highly-skilled operational experts to maintenance employees.

Although the workforce would never grow, a power plant’s attraction commands global attention from high-volume electrical users, like plastics manufacturers, Martin said.

Where those users can buy large volumes of electricity at lower prices, without high distribution costs, they come looking to build plants, he said.

In Latvia, where CME International built a utility plant, a papermill and a variety of other industries approached the company – without CME announcing anything publicly, Martin said.

"It’s inevitable," he said. "That’s especially true in a region that’s already interested in being an industrial area."

Mrs. Clonch agreed, calling the proposed power plant the framework for attracting other industries, which could bring hundreds or thousands of more jobs to the county.

"We feel good about it," she said. "And we will continue to support in any way possible to see this through fruition."

Martin also listed several other key points of CME’s proposed power plant.

It’s a private development, which means no government funding attached; gas-fired plants have less impact to the environment than coal-fired power plants; and the Lawrence County area is a perfect fit for the company’s down-to-Earth goals, he said.

"In two months, we will know specifically where we’re at and we’d like to reconvene," he said, referring to another meeting like Thursday’s.

At that meeting, Martin will update officials and the public about the status of the plant project.