Mount Olive to receive biodiesel plant grant
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on November 8, 2005 1:47 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- The N.C. Rural Center notified Mount Olive officials Monday afternoon that the town will be receiving a grant to help provide water and sewer to a new biodiesel plant.
The grant will help the town of Mount Olive send the lines to the plant, which will be built in the vicinity of the town's water plant on Northeast Church Road.
Courtney Kilpatrick in the Rural Center office said the grant for $242,360 is contingent on receipt of a full application by Jan. 16. She said it should not take long after receipt of the full application for the town to receive the money.
She said the company, Atlantic BioEnergy, LLC, plans to build a $30 million processing plant. There are 28 jobs tied to the project, and the average wage will be nearly $42,000. She said they haven't even talked about the second phase yet.
The local match is another $242,350, and Wayne Economic Development Director Joanna Thompson said the town and Wayne County are working together to produce those matching funds.
Ms. Thompson said the engineer that created the plans for the biodiesel plant estimated the construction cost at $484,700.
Mount Olive Town Manager Ray McDonald said the town has received a copy of the plans for the plant, which will be built in two phases. The first phase will employ about 26 people and will process soy bean oil. The second phase will bring the total of new employees to about 45 or 50 and will crush soy beans.
He said that, although the grant is about half of what is needed, the project "is a go."