Intermodal Development Nets CCPA Grant Money
EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio -- The Columbiana County Port Authority looks to continue improvements at the Wellsville Intermodal Facility funded by $3.5 million in grant monies.
At its monthly board meeting Monday evening, the port authority approved an agreement with the Ohio Development Services Agency for a loan originally awarded through the Ohio Department of Development’s Logistics and Distribution stimulus program. Initially a $4.3 million loan, the money was intended to purchase land options for the stalled Ohio River Clean Fuels project, but was repurposed for improvements to the intermodal park. Upon meeting certain criteria, the loan monies would revert to a grant and would be reimbursed.
In 2012, the port authority accepted the terms of the loan, which counted the development of the Cimbar Performance Minerals and Anchor Drilling Fluids plants at the park toward meeting the required criteria. According to the agreement, the port authority had to show that the loan monies were spent as approved, that 23,400 man-hours of work were performed on the improvements, 20 full-time jobs were created and that the site stays in operation for three years. Monies are reimbursed at a rate of 34% on the dollar for the grant, which would require Cimbar and Anchor to make roughly $10 million in improvements for the port authority to receive the full $3.5 million.
To date, Cimbar and Anchor have expended more than $6 million and, upon proof of expenditure, the port authority will receive $2 million of the $3.5 million, said its CEO, Tracy Drake. Once another $4 million in expenditures is made, the port authority will be authorized to draw the remaining $1.5 million. At the meeting, Drake said the grant money will likely be used for rail improvements, infrastructure and equipment purchases.
“The more efficient we make the Wellsville terminal, the more efficient the county will be in handling the material coming in,” Drake said. “There’s congestion down there already at the terminal with the rail line.”
In other business, the board approved a limited warranty deed to transfer the former Eljer Plumbingware property to Salem Logistics LLC. In 1989, a landfill at the site of about 25 acres was capped and closed per Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulations. The landfill was used for Eljer’s metal and furnace tailings -- scrap material leftover from the fabrication process. The material was deemed hazardous, and groundwater samples have been collected from a monitoring well network surrounding the landfill since 1991 to measure the amounts of arsenic and barium at the site. Data and statistical analysis from the tests were presented annually to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The port authority has satisfied the OEPA’s reporting requirement and is transferring the deed to Salem Logistics, which will market and lease the 80-acre property located at 921 S. Ellsworth Ave. with the help of the port authority, Drake said. In 2008, Salem Logistics fronted $250,000 to acquire the property, and Drake said the company is now comfortable to take over ownership. Currently, the property is fully leased and being used by companies for storage, “but if we can turn that into a full manufacturing site with rail access, that’s the way to go,” Drake said.
While it was noted that transferring the deed to Salem Logistics won’t turn a profit for the port authority, chairman Charlie Presley said “that’s not our purpose.
“Our purpose is to help create jobs,” Presley said. “And [Salem Logistics] are the guys to do it.”
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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