Chris Wilson news blog

AMORY — A manufacturer that produces rebar from recycled steel plans to locate in Amory’s Waterway Industrial Park. It will be the biggest industrial investment ever for North Monroe County.
EcoSteel Recycling, LLC has applied for environmental permits and announced plans to construct a steel recycling facility on about 80 acres of city-owned land on the waterway, south of the Domtar (formerly Weyerhaeuser) wood-chipping facility.  EcoSteel Recycling is what the industry refers to as a “green field project” as it is a newly created company, not affiliated with other existing companies, constructed at a previously undeveloped site. Eco Steel’s total investment in Amory is expected to be in excess of $150 million.
According to EcoSteel Recycling President and CEO Louis Colatriano, the steel mill will consume about 330,000 tons of scrap steel a year, converting it into 300,000 tons of rebar.
Rebar is a steel reinforcing product used in most major concrete construction projects, especially in bridge and highway construction. Company officials said the U.S. imports billions of tons of foreign-manufactured rebar annually, but U.S. law prohibits use of foreign-made rebar on federal highways and bridges. Because of the Buy America regulation, EcoSteel Recycling sees a tremendous opportunity to market its rebar.
The plant is expected to be about a 100,000-square-foot facility capable of producing long steel rebar product.
Colatriano said the process the company will use is “the epitome of recycling.”  They will recycle scrap steel such as scrap cars, refrigerators and other appliances. The company uses electrical energy to melt the scrap metal. Once it is in a liquid state,  a continuous casting process produces steel billets. It is then transported into a rolling mill to be reduced and eventually the rebar is cut to length and shipped out to customers.
Incoming scrap steel will come to the plant by rail, barge  and truck. The outbound finished rebar product will move primarily by truck  and rail.
“Steel is the most recycled material on earth and we are glad to be doing our part in this recycling effort,” he said.
EcoSteel Recycling’s target market will be the Katrina rebuilding effort and other construction, especially highway and bridges, within a 350 mile radius of Amory.

Jobs Created
The facility is expected to create at least 100 direct full-time jobs with a pay scale that is competitive within the industry plus a competitive benefit package, including a 401(k) program.
There will also be a great number of indirect jobs created in the area around the plant in trucking, cleaning trucks,gas stations, supplying materials and fabricating. Colatriano  estimated about 75 indirect jobs, with pay averaging from $35,000 to $40,000 annually. He said steel mills traditionally create numerous jobs besides those directly within the mill.
The jobs will not be at capacity levels until the mill is in full production within about three years after groundbreaking. Construction on the plant is expected to begin by year end and will take about 18 months to complete. At the peak of construction, Boozer said there will be 700 to 800 construction workers on site. Colatriano said it will then take about 18 months to “ramp up” the facility to full  production.
Most employees are expected to be hired locally, some skilled workers will be sought, while others will be trained through a training program that is part of the company’s business plan. The company will be working through the local community colleges and Three Rivers Planning and Development and job fairs to hire and train its work force. Hiring will occur simultaneously with construction on the mill.

Site selection
The company chose Amory for its steel mill for several reasons. “We’ve been delighted with Mississippi,” Colatriano said.
There was a lot of momentum for this type of industry in Mississippi following the Mississippi Development Authority’s (MDA’s) recruitment of other major industries to the state.
The MDA, ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission), and the low cost of TVA power helped land this company in Amory. Also among factors for its selection of the site was cooperation from Amory city officials and the Monroe County supervisors who, Colatriano said, “embraced the project.”
“It’s really a true partnership,” he said, of local, state and federal entities.

Local commitment
The city’s commitment to the project is to provide necessary infrastructure on the site. A heavy-duty road is already in place at the industrial park, that was funded through grants over the past several years beginning in 2001. The city has secured a Multi-Modal MDOT grant to pay for extension of the city’s rail spur to the steel mill site.
The city expects to issue a bond for water, sewer and electrical infrastructure at the site. Before issuing any type of bond, a public hearing would be held.
According to Mayor Howard Boozer, the city and county are participating in the project as a team and a plan is in the works to put no additional tax burden on the public even when issuance of bonds becomes necessary. Boozer said they are currently pursuing all grants possible to keep local expense for any improvements to the industrial park minimal. The plant site is raw land that has never before been developed.
“This will build the tax base, not burden local taxpayers,” Boozer said. “This project will have the largest favorable impact ever on the tax base of the city of Amory and North Monroe County.”
Mayor Boozer said other companies will take note of a project the size of EcoSteel Recycling locating here. The infrastructure being developed at the industrial park for the steel mill will lay the foundation for other economic development projects there in the future.
The company doesn’t foresee any significant negative environmental impact on the Amory area. Colatriano said there will not be excessive noise from the manufacturing process and that they will
conform to environmental standards using the BACT (Best Available Control Technology) standards for emissions.
A formal groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the industrial site in the coming months.

In the May 13 runoff election for the U.S. House of Representatives District 1 seat, the majority of Monroe Countians voters went with Booneville native Travis Childers, a Democrat. With 25 of 25 precincts in Monroe County reporting, 3,591 votes were cast for Childers and 1,869 for Republican Greg Davis of Southaven.

Childers will serve the remaining portion of former representative and now interim Senator Roger Wicker’s term then face the general election for a full term in November. Childers will face Davis as well as Independent Wally Pang and Green Party member John Wages in the general election for the District 1 House seat.

AMORY — An approximate $12.8 million expansion has been announced by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, the company that leases the city’s port and handles material loading and unloading there. The expansion will allow the company to handle raw materials for SeverStal, the new steel mill in Columbus.
According to company officials, the expansion at the bulk terminal facility will provide additional infrastructure to help meet the growing need for carbon products in the Southeast due to increased steel making in the region.
With the expansion, Kinder Morgan will receive carbon products by barge, rail and truck, for use in producing steel in the region.
The expansion is expected to create about four to six new jobs directly and more indirectly, such as in trucking. Because the city receives a tonnage fee for all materials that move across the city’s port on the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the expansion will increase tonnage fee revenue for the city.
New infrastructure that will be added to the terminal includes a 12,000-square-foot building to house a dryer and screener, two 400-ton silos for storage of materials, 400 feet of train track and a 100,000-pound truck scale.
“This expansion project will enable Kinder Morgan Terminals to help meet the demand for carbon at the recently opened SeverCorr facility in Columbus, Miss., as well as other steel mills in the Southeast,” said Jeff Armstrong, president of the Kinder Morgan Terminals business segment. “As the nation’s leading bulk terminal operator, we continuously look for opportunities to provide additional services to our customers, improve efficiencies and grow our business.”
Last year Kinder Morgan unloaded, stored and blended about 350,000 tons of mineral product and loaded over 3,500 rail cars at the Amory terminal. Its principle customer in Monroe County is Tronox in Hamilton.
Construction on the expansion is scheduled to begin late in the second quarter of this year, with completion expected in the fall of 2008.

Amory High School’s Envirothon Team won first place in state competition last week, qualifying its members for international competition in Flagstaff, Ariz. in late July. This is the team’s seventh state title out of nine years of competition. Envirothon competition is a hands-on activity in which high schoolers are callenged in several different environmental categories of knowledge — wildlife, soils, aquatics, forestry and a current issue. Amory High’s team members are Kishan Patel, Sarah Trautman, Lauren Finley, Vincent Leray and Alec Smith. Team advisor is Mrs. Lisa Herndon, AHS math instructor.

A Guthrie’s restaurant, a fast food chain specializing in chicken fingers, has announced plans to locate on Hwy. 278 East in Amory. The restaurant had been looking at a building near the Mississippian railroad tracks on the north side of Hwy. 278 for about a year now, said city planner Russell Butler. They have not gotten any building permits or privilege licenses with the city yet, however. The restaurant’s corporate Web site says they are “coming soon” to Amory and to Picayune, MS.

Amory’s 30th annual Railroad Festival went into the history books as a major success, attracting one of the biggest crowds ever.
While rain is seldom a stranger to this spring event, this year’s dose of rainfall came on Friday night, in the form of a thunderstorm that caused the cancellation of all of that evening’s musical acts and chased the crowds away. But first thing Saturday morning, city crews were in the park preparing it for all the guests.
Festival co-chairmen Heather Holman and Debra Strawbridge said the event came off well considering all the details that need to be handled to stage a party this size.
Country music legend Marty Stuart got things started Thursday, playing to an overflow crowd, many who had placed their folding chairs in Frisco Park to reserve their spot a day or two ahead of time. The crowd stood all the way to First Ave. to hear Stuart sing. He said he loved being in a place like Amory. “I love small town America,” he said. “This is a great way to start my tour.”
Stuart said he enjoyed a cheeseburger in Amory that was “the size of a hubcap.”
With BNSF trains signaling their arrival to Amory’s railroad yards beside the downtown park, Amory Mayor Howard Boozer welcomed everyone to this rail city. He gave a special welcome to the hobo guests who he called “faithful hobo friends” who come every year from all over the country. He also cited all the work that has to be done by the festival committee of volunteers.
Boozer said upwards of 60,000 people attend the festival over its four-day run.
“Families use the festival as a special time of reunion …,” he said.
The food court was one of the most popular venues for festivalgoers, with apple fritters, snowcones and funnel cakes taking the spotlight. Some churches’ booths had to shut down early because they had totally run out of food.
A record number of antique and classic car enthusiasts turned out Saturday to compete in the car show due to the sunny skies that prevailed Saturday and Sunday.
The 5K run also attracted about 165 runners of all ages with a Plantersville runner, Israel Melendez, capturing first place, covering the route in just over 16 minutes.

Southern Ethanol Co.’s officials came to Amory to meet with Amory’s mayor and board of aldermen Tuesday night, April 15. This company had secured property in the city’s waterway industrial park a couple years ago but nothing has happened in the time frame they had earlier promised. The company was going to produce biodiesel fuel, ethanol, by distilling corn. Whether they are still planning the same facility they had earlier obtained land for is still unknown to the general public since they went into a closed door meeting with Amory officials to discuss their plan. No new action was taken by the board regarding the company. When last contacted, Southern Ethanol officials had stated that they were still trying to secure financing for their Amory operation.

First place Israel Melendez

Thirty-nine-year-old Israel Melendez of Plantersville, MS, crossed the finish line first Saturday morning in the 5K Railroad Run in Amory. Melendez finished the race in 16:47. There were 165 runners of all ages in the event and perfect weather. Second and third place finishers were Andrew Bishop and Luke Hatcher, both of Pontotoc, MS

Amory physician Dr. Roy Thomas was named Amory’s 2008 Citizen of the Year. He said it came as a total surprise to him. The award was presented by the Amory Junior Auxiliary at opening ceremonies for the Railroad Festival. Thomas has served as Amory High’s girls’ soccer coach for several years, being a role model to the girls he’s coached through the years. He has also coached the team to several successful seasons. He resigned as coach at the conclusion of this season. He and his wife, Lynda, have three children … Christen, Grant and Evan.

The initial response to the merged newspaper, the Monroe County Journal, is very favorable. What used to be The Amory Advertiser and The Aberdeen Examiner is now the MCJ (I call it mojo). It’s what the company’s officials have promised … new, bigger and better. This new paper has all of the county’s news and is much bigger than its predecessor papers. Some new staff is coming on to join the current staffs in the coming weeks and it will be even more improved in terms of meeting advertisers’ needs and in covering more of the news that’s happening around Monroe County. Let us know what you want to see in this still transitioning newspaper. We’ll try to tailor it to your requests (within reason). We still have offices in Amory and Aberdeen and plan to keep both of them in years to come so both of the county’s major cities will be served.  We are in the process of getting a new web site up and running for the MCJ, independent of the Tupelo Daily Journal’s site which we are currently linked to. The most amazing thing about this merger is that prices for subcriptions and ads will not be going up. In fact, subscriptions are at an all time low until June … $15 a year.