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NEW CARLISLE – It’s a billion dollar project that will bring about 500 construction jobs to St. Joseph County.
We’re talking about the new power plant in New Carlisle near I/N Tek.
Developers wanted to break ground last year, but that didn’t happen.
WSBT did some digging to find out why the project is delayed.
State and county permits are taking longer than expected to obtain. The New York developers building the plant wanted to break ground last summer. Now, their hope is to start construction by the end of 2013.
On Wednesday, County Commissioners took a step in the right direction, hoping to push up construction to this summer.
“The delay was more about how long the process took,” said Commissioner Andy Kostielney. “They were aggressive in hoping some of the things they were going to accomplish.”
The group of developers introduced its master plan in March 2011.
“The whole project is up to the speed of the developers, and the state, IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) slowed them down a little bit,” Commissioner Dave Thomas said.
Obtaining permits from the state and county is taking more time than expected. For example, an air permit test was finished in October, and they’re still waiting to hear from the state.
County Commissioners say patience is key, because in the end, there’s a bonus for everyone.
“We certainly welcome the hundreds of jobs it’s gonna bring, and the huge increase in our tax breaks,” said Thomas.
“Everything appears to be on track on our end to start the project by the end of 2013,” said Kostielney.
It’s an 18-month to 2-year construction period, so they hope to be producing power by 2016. And they’re using Tax Increment Finance money for most of the project.
Wednesday, the commissioners approved a water and sewer study that will test how much incoming water will come into the site once it’s up and running.