Seward County Independent

    It's official.
     Seward County is getting its first ethanol plant, and Utica may end up as one of the biggest winners in the deal.
     At a Nov. 16 press conference in the Nebraska State Capitol Rotunda, Central Bio-Energy (CBE), LLC, a Grand Island-based company, announced plans to build a 100-million-gallon ethanol plant immediately east of Tamora, slated for completion in the summer of 2008.
     "This is an incredible investment," Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman said at the conference. "Projects such as this have a significant and positive impact on our local economies and the state overall."
     The Seward County plant is one of three CBE plans to bring online in 2008. The company announced the planned construction of two similar plants in St. Paul and Imperial.
     "Once these plants are built we'll be the largest ethanol company in Nebraska," CBE President and Chief Executive Officer Gordon Glade said, "and one of the top 10 ethanol companies in the country."
     The Seward County plant is planned for construction at the southeast corner of the intersection of Highway 34 and 364th Road (the Goehner spur), CBE Chief Financial Officer Brett Frevert said. The company hopes to break ground next spring.
     The plant's estimated $160-million price tag and 50 full-time jobs with salaries averaging $42,500 per year promise a substantial economic boost to the area in tax receipts and employment.
     Area farmers should benefit, as well. Glade said that much of the estimated 36 bushels of corn needed annually will come from local producers.
     "We anticipate contracting with ConAgra Trade Group and Frenchmen Valley Coop for grain securement," he said, adding that CBE would likely purchase grain directly from producers, as well.
     The company will also offer distiller's grain, an ethanol by-product, as a low-cost livestock feed.
     Glade estimated that 150 to 200 construction jobs would be created at each building site.
     "This is definitely a project that will be beneficial to taxpayers, businesses, the county in general and farmers," Seward County Economic Developer Lana Zumbrunn said.
     The village of Utica may end up as one of the more surprising beneficiaries. Though the plant's proposed location is more than six-and-a-half miles from the village and is closer to Goehner and even Staplehurst, Utica has been quietly moving to acquire the land via skip annexation - a policy allowing villages and second-class cities (those with populations less than 5,000) to annex land not included in its boundaries.
     "We felt it would be a great, great thing for our farmers around here," Utica Village Board Chairman Jim Swanson said, "as well as taxation income."
     Central Bio-Energy would benefit from the annexation because Utica could then declare the property blighted, paving the way for tax-increment financing (TIF) to relieve much of CBE's real property tax burden for up to 15 years.
     Tax-increment financing holds the real property tax assessment to its pre-development level. Additional property taxes which would normally be paid as property improvements raise the assessed value are instead used by the company to pay off its bonds.
     "The tax-increment financing is a tool," Zumbrunn said. "It encourages economic development that might not happen otherwise."
     County governments can not grant TIF, so CBE would only have access to the substantial tax break if the property is annexed by a city or village.
     "Seward wasn't eligible," Zumbrunn said, reiterating the policy's restriction to cities smaller than 5,000. "We actually chose Utica (over other villages) for the project just because of the structure of the larger population."
     Though Goehner is two miles closer to the site than Utica is, Goehner Village Board Chairperson Sue Smetter said the village was kept in the dark about the action.
     "We were not contacted," she said. "The first we heard of it is when it came out in the paper."
     While the company will avoid paying a real property tax increase to local government entities, TIF will not exempt it from personal property taxes, which would be an immediate boon to Utica, the Centennial School District and Seward County.
     "They could have quite a substantial amount of value in personal property," Seward County Assessor Marilyn Hladky said.
     The plant will use an estimated 350 million gallons of water per year, approximately 60 percent of which will be returned to the local watershed. Frevert said CBE will drill its own wells at the site.
     Zumbrunn and the county have been working with CBE for more than six months.
     "I heard about the project through (Seward County Commissioner) Ron Minchow," she said. "As soon as I was hired I started working on the project."
     CBE executives and county officials remained secretive about plans to bring the plant to Seward County until CBE representatives presented information to the Seward County Commissioners at their Oct. 31 meeting, making the proposal part of the public record.
     Even after the news was made public in an open meeting, Zumbrunn and company officials refused to comment on the deal until the Nov. 16 press conference.