Owensboro City Commissioners are throwing their support behind a plan to build a new processing plant at the city’s riverport.
At a meeting Tuesday night, commissioners praised the plan that would be financed by $25 million of city issued bonds. The Messenger-Inquirer reports an ordinance authorizing the bonds will likely come up for a final vote next month.
Under the plan, a new milling facility would be built in partnership with Solvay Chemicals. While the city would issue the bonds used to pay for the project, the Riverport Authority would be responsible for repaying the cost of the bonds over ten years.
The estimated economic impact of the new processing facility is between $45 million and $65 million.
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The Owensboro City Commission is taking up the idea of issuing $25 million in bonds that would finance a new processing plant at the city’s Riverport Authority.
Commissioners will hear the first reading of an ordinance about the bonds at their meeting Tuesday evening.
The Messenger-Inquirer reports the Riverport Authority would own and operate a new milling facility that would receive raw material by rail, produce sodium bicarbonate in fine powder form, and then send by truck the product to a Solvay Chemicals facility where it would then be sold to users.
Sodium bicarbonate is used in many common household items such as baking soda and antacids.
The proposed 40,000-square foot facility would contain shipping, receiving, and milling operations, and would result in eight new jobs at the riverport.
Under the ordinance, the riverport would be responsible for repaying the $25 million in bonds.
