KiOR is awaiting a revised lease from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before breaking ground on Columbus” island.
During Wednesday”s meeting of the Lowndes County Port Authority board, Director John Hardy explained KiOR was apprehensive about beginning construction of its synthetic crude oil manufacturing plant because the lease on a portion of land owned by the Corps specifies the Secretary of the Army can revoke the lease at any time.
The Corps” lease on the land is actually with the Port Authority, which hopes to purchase the land for an undetermined amount within a year. But the Corps agreed to change the language in the lease until the sale is completed to satisfy KiOR.
“I can”t quote (the revised language), but it”s a little more assuring,” said Hardy.
The Port Authority currently owns 22 of the 30 acres KiOR will inhabit on the island and the Corps owns the remainder. The port will purchase the Corps land before selling the entire plot to KiOR.
Hardy believes the process was helped along by a chance encounter between KiOR CEO Fred Cannon and Colonel Steven Roemhildt, commander of the Mobile Engineering District.
Cannon was in Columbus visiting the plant site Jan. 6 as Roemhildt was traveling up the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway visiting Corps sites in his district. The two spoke face to face and Hardy believes Cannon had a chance to better explain KiOR”s intentions for the property.
On Tuesday two Corps real estate appraisers visited the Corps property for the first time in years.
There was no action for the Port Authority board to take with regard to KiOR. The only action taken Wednesday was to grant Georgia Pacific an extension on a piece of land it leases on the island.
Hardy recapped for the three board members present the Port Authority”s commitment to pay a third of $367,000 for a third lane to be added to Industrial Park Access Road. The extra lane will ease traffic congestion as log trucks travel to KiOR. Columbus and Lowndes County will pay an equal shares of the loan, which works out to approximately $14,000 annually.
Hardy also explained a minor train derailment which occurred Jan. 6 on the island just south of Logistic Services.
A locomotive coming in to pick up gondola cars full of lime rock slipped off the track due to an unknown cause. The car”s wheels slipped off the rails but the car did not tip. Jacks were used to return the car to the tracks.
Hardy estimates it will cost the Port Authority $5,000-10,000 to replace several cross ties and straighten the rails. The repairs began Wednesday.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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