An official representing the Elite Octane, LLC ethanol plant, issued a Press Release today (Friday), saying the Cass County Board of Supervisors have received an updated proposal from Elite Octane, with regard to the construction of an ethanol production facility in Atlantic.  Nick Bowdish, President and CEO of N Bowdish Company, LLC, said the proposal provides for new infrastructure to be completed in Cass County that will be paid for entirely by property taxes generated by Elite Octane.  Bowdish says at the completion of the proposed project, Cass County will have an additional two and a half miles of newly paved roads that should help facilitate development of the area surrounding the proposed plant.

According to Bowdish, property taxes generated by Elite Octane’s proposed project will also support the installation of a “gray water” line that will recycle a waste stream the community has released down the Nishnabotna River for more than 75 years. The recycling of gray water, he says, is certainly a positive from both water conservation and environmental perspectives, but is also important to the viability of the ethanol facility itself. Recycled gray water is an important component in plans for Elite Octane’s proposed $190 million dollar investment, which will bring with it 49 long-term, high quality jobs and a local payroll in excess of $3.5 million.

While previous proposals contemplated Cass County carrying a greater share of the project’s financial and infrastructure burdens, as neighboring counties have done with ethanol plants in the past, Bowdish says Elite Octane’s newest proposal contemplates that Cass County taxpayers will not pay for any of the new infrastructure required by the project. These will be entirely funded by Elite Octane’s future property taxes. Cass county residents will, however, enjoy the benefits of immediate and certain job growth as well as a value-added processor for corn grown in the region that should drive local farm incomes higher.

In addition, Bowdish says there will be opportunities for further economic development on the newly paved roads, which will be paid for entirely by the tax revenues generated from the asset investment Elite Octane proposes to make in Cass County. “It has always been Elite Octane’s intention to pay its own way into Cass County,” said Bowdish. “Elite Octane looks forward to finalizing an agreement with Cass County that will enable it to promptly sign construction contracts, avoiding further delay and risks of labor and material escalation which could potentially delay, or even stop, the project.”

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman said a public hearing on a Development Agreement, based on the new proposal, will be held during the Board of Supervisors meeting at 9-a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14th.

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Elite Octane, LLC is a privately held, development-stage ethanol production company.  The Company is in final stages of due diligence and anticipates it could begin construction in January 2017 on an ethanol plant near Atlantic, Iowa that will consume over 40 million bushels of locally grown corn and produce approximately 120 million gallons of ethanol and 300,000 tons of distiller’s grains per year.