POET and Operation Life speak at meeting

CLOVERDALE -- Dave Brooks from POET gave a presentation at the Cloverdale Town Council meeting Tuesday.

Brooks, the general manager at the soon-to-open Cloverdale ethanol business said the plant is nearing completion.

"We've pretty much got everybody hired. We started training on Feb. 14," Brooks said.

"Our POET design and construction group is wrapping up their work and we're planning a grand opening on March 15, which is going to be open to the public," he said.

Brooks said a parking area north of the plant would have a shuttle to the plant for the opening. There will be tours and a presentation that includes the lieutenant governor, high-ranking POET executives and a member of an ethanol trade group.

Brooks said POET expects a fair amount of truck traffic at their site once business is going.

"Just to give you an idea, we will consume about 90,000 bushels of corn a day, which is about 90 trucks. We'll be open during the week so we're thinking about 125 to 130 trucks a day during the week for corn," Brooks said.

He said he expected 15 to 25 people a day picking up dry grain, which is an offshoot of the ethanol making process, and three or four trucks a day for ethanol. Ethanol will mostly be shipped out by rail.

"We'll try to schedule those trucks during the day," Brooks said.

He also said March 22 would be the first full day of operations.

The board approved a rezoning for Operation Life, going from R-1, or rural to B-2, or general business.

"Operation Life is looking to build a new building. It will still be in the same location," board president Cathy Tipton said. "It will be a two bay, and the front of it will face Mill Street."

Kraig Kinney, the executive director of Operation Life said he hopes the project moves fairly fast.

"I'm hoping to consider bids even in April and maybe get started as early as May," Kinney said. "We built a new station at Bainbridge, and it's a modified version of that. Realistically, that should speed it up because we already have a template that we want to use."

Kinney said Operation Life would still serve Putnam County during the construction.

Jim Roberts from Roberts Construction asked the board to void the demolition bid he had placed for 37 Play Way for $3,920. He said he had confused the property with another, and that the current bid would cause him to lose money.

Town attorney Allan Yackey said that the board didn't have to void his bid, as Roberts made the mistake. The board decided to release Roberts' bid, but did not refund the demolition permit. The bid then transferred to Brett Hurley Construction, the next lowest bidder at $5,025.

Further information from this meeting will be in the next edition of the Banner Graphic.