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Baard nears completion of land purchase
WELLSVILLE
The Baard Energy coal-to-fuel plant is a go.
John Baardson, president and CEO of Baard Energy, and Steve Dopuch, vice president, said in a conference call that they are completing paying for the options for the land around the proposed site.
In 1996, Baardson proposed the plant that would turn coal into synthetic fuel.
After obtaining the needed permits for the plant, Baard Energy couldn’t find investors
A Florida-based investment company, Planck Trading LLC of Boca Raton, Fla., recently entered into an agreement with Baard Energy to finance the project.
Under the new plan, Planck will pay an estimated $5 million to close on the Baard options.
The options have to be paid by the end of this year. There are 14 properties involved.
Tracy Drake, chief executive officer for the Columbiana County Port Authority, said the properties range from “homes to lots to pastures.”
Some of the properties are the remains of strip mining that were never reclaimed, he added.
The properties cover about 500 acres.
Some of the properties for the facility are bisected by Sixteen School Road in Yellow Creek Township.
Baardson and Dopuch said they also are clearing the titles to the properties.
The two men said they plan to spend the winter preparing the engineering phase with the intention of breaking ground next March or April.
Wellsville Mayor Joseph Surace, whose city is near the property, said he also has heard that the plant is on its way to becoming a reality.
The mayor added that a number of Democratic office holders, including state Rep. Linda Bolon of Columbiana, D-1st, and U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson of St. Clairsville, D-6th, had worked to make the project a reality.
They were defeated for new terms earlier this month. But Surace said that he has been told by Republicans who defeated them that they will help to make the plant a reality.
The pending work apparently is helping the village.
Surace said that some people have made improvements to other properties in the hope of selling or renting them to workers at the plant.