Members of the Cass/Atlantic Development Corporation (CADCO) held their annual meeting Tuesday evening in the Camblin Addition shelter house at Sunnyside Park, with dinner catered by the Downtowner. Guest speaker for the evening was Mike Messing, Manager for the 150-million gallon per year Elite Octane Ethanol Plant that’s under construction, on the northern side of Atlantic.

Elite Octane Ethanol Plant Mgr. Mike Messing

Messing said construction will start soon at the plant, on the world’s largest freestanding bins for storing corn. He says the bins will 156-feet in diameter, 29 rings high and hold 2 million bushels each. Later this week or next, concrete will be pressure-pumped into the ground to place the structures on. Construction crews started camping out at the Schildberg Recreation Area almost as soon as the camping pads were installed. Altogether, there are currently about 100 people working on various aspects of the project.

Once all the steel work is done, pipe fitters will be scampering around the site installing at nearly 25-miles worth of pipe. Messing said residents should begin to see an influx of workers coming into town within the next couple of months. When the plant is up and running, it will process 400- to 420-thousand gallons of ethanol per day. He says the initial run will produce 120,000 gallons per day and increase to 150,000 gallons soon thereafter. The rest depends on the supply of corn.

Messing says they hope the project will be complete by Sept., 2018. They will begin taking applications for skilled, general and advanced positions (like chemists) at eliteoctane.net within the next week or so. It is important that you use “dotnet,” because there is an eliteoctane.com that has nothing to do with the ethanol plant project.

50 employees are expected to be on the payroll when the plant is fully functional. Messing said the annual payroll is expected to be $6.5-million. Base pay on the low end will be approximately $18.50 per hour, with the more advanced positions paying considerably more. The heavy work force likely won’t be needed until the Spring of 2018.