Local leaders take look into what future could hold for Rogers City with trip to view power plant
by Richard Lamb– Advance Editor
(Alexandria, Louisiana)-A group of community leaders from Presque Isle County took a trip to the future last week and came back impressed. The 11 local leaders in government, schools and business visited a nearly completed power plant in central Louisiana and saw what could happen in Rogers City and the surrounding area if Wolverine Power were to construct a 600-megawatt power plant in Rogers Township as part of its Clean Energy Venture (WCEV). The Cleco Power plant will use the same technology to be used in the Rogers Township plant and is being built by the recognized leader in power plant construction, the Shaw Group based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The group?s goal in visiting the Louisiana plant was to anticipate impacts of the construction of a power plant in Rogers Township by gaining insight from those who had been through the process. Although the two sites?Rogers City and Boyce, Louisiana?are different, they do have many similarities. Boyce is a small town, smaller than Rogers City, but in a county (parish) of 133,000. Just 15 miles south of Boyce is the 50,000 populated city of Alexandria and across the river from Alexandria is the sister city of Pineville with a population of nearly 14,000. The community leaders met with their counterparts for two full days in the central Louisiana cities near the power plant to find out the ?what ifs? of the construction process.
THOSE INVITED and hosted by Wolverine included city manager Mark Slown, council member Deb Greene, District 5 county commissioner Mike Grohowski, Economic Development Corporation executive director Bill Valentine, Sheriff Bob Paschke, Rogers City Area School board president and businessman Mike Marx, Rogers Township trustee David Grulke, Presque Isle County Planning Commission member Jerry Counterman, local real estate agent and businessman Mike Eustice, Presque Isle Newspapers publisher and Rogers City Chamber of Commerce board member Richard Lamb, and former Rogers City mayor David Nadolsky who remains active in a number of community groups.
The community leaders heard that the construction process could take five years, with many local workers hired and many coming from the surrounding areas. Many would come from outside the area and would require housing. Finding adequate space is a concern to be addressed, most agreed. The middle years could see as many as 1,500 workers on the job site at one time. In the Louisiana plant construction phase, many workers found lodging in the nearby cities of Alexandria and Pineville in the parish (county) of Rapides. Transportation to the twin cities is quick via Interstate 49, which has an exit right at the gate of the power plant in Boyce.
TRAFFIC DURING shift changes was the other main concern discussed. Rapides Parish Sheriff Chuck Wagner said the construction company for the Boyce project, the Shaw Group, hired off-duty deputies for short-term traffic duty at the plant entrance on a daily basis. That solved the problem, he said. Shaw paid for the deputies? extra time and the deputies didn?t mind the extra pay, he said.
?As far as the law enforcement perspective, traffic didn?t seem to get any worse. Our crime didn?t go up, due to the project. We had very minimal problems,? Sheriff Wagner said. ?Overall, it has been really good for our community. As far as a small community of 3,000, I?m sure it will bring a few more considerations. Being our parish is so spread out, it has been really good.? Wagner said many campgrounds were filled with worker?s travel trailers, but they were very clean and well behaved. The skilled laborers work long hours, make good money and stay out of trouble, the sheriff said.
WHEN ASKED ABOUT environmental concerns or opposition to the project, the central Louisiana community leaders said there were virtually none. Clarence Fields, mayor of Pineville, said he often goes fishing in the lake created by the Cleco Power plant saying the warm, clean discharge water made for great fishing. A fishing tournament was planned for the lake this weekend. ?It has been a great project,? Fields said. ?I don?t know of any issues in regards to the fish.? County commissioner Richard Vanderlick said there are no complaints he can recall regarding the operation of the two existing power plants at the Rodemacher site. ?There is nobody that fusses about the Cleco coal plant because it is virtually unseen and unnoticed,? Vanderlick said.
BOYCE MAYOR DON Welch, who is also principal of the Northwood School, less than two miles from the power plant, said Cleco has been a good neighbor. He said a science teacher at the school has monitored soil samples for 15 years and has seen no differences. Welch advised the leaders to think down the road with regards to regulations, especially on roads. Heavy truck traffic has worn out several roads in the area. Problems could also come from too many travel trailers parked in yards, Welch said, so zoning laws should be enforced.
Opportunities were missed, Welch said, especially in housing workers. Cleco told the community of the possibilities of many workers coming to the area, but not many took advantage of the chance to build recreational vehicle parks to house the temporary influx. Grocery stores and restaurants had greatly increased business during the construction phase, Welch said.
WOLVERINE LEADERS seemed pleased with the information shared and with the participation of the Presque Isle County contingent. ?I think from Wolverine?s perspective hopefully we accomplished a great deal by bringing the community leaders (to Louisiana) and having them meet up with some of their peers from this area to explore the types of impact that go along with a $1 billion investment in a base-load generating plant,? said Craig Borr, Wolverine?s executive vice president.
?I think the other thing that was hopefully very helpful was for them to see a construction site to see the scale of what you are talking about to see how many people are working there and what goes into a project of that magnitude. Hopefully it gives them a sense of scale in terms of community impact and impact of the power plant in the longer term.? Borr accompanied the group to many of the meetings with community leaders in Alexandria and Boyce. Wolverine?s Dan DeCoeur, vice president of generation, and Ken Bradstreet, director of communications and government relations, helped serve as hosts from the Presque Isle group.
?CERTAINLY FROM Wolverine?s standpoint our principal objective as far as the Rogers City contingent was to really hone in on some of those areas that we need to play a very supportive role in within the community,? Borr said. Housing and transportation issues were brought up in many sessions, creating potential concerns and potential opportunities. ?We need to begin talking with community leaders about some of those issues as we go down the path,? Borr said. The overwhelming feeling had by the participants was that the power plant in Boyce had a very positive impact on the area. When questions about opp
?Part of what we have found out is that a lot of the things that have been prophesized have not happened. There are some things that we have to take seriously, and I think we know what those things are. But some of the things people have said are going to happen if (the power plant in Rogers City is built) of a really negative nature, we haven?t found that here among people who have lived through this process. Those people have lived with a generating plant nearby for all their lives,? said Bradstreet.
Wolverine is awaiting approval of its air quality permit filed last year with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Once that is issued, the Wolverine board of directors must give its approval to go ahead with the project. Then a construction firm is to be hired. Shaw Group, the construction firm used in the Cleco plant, conducted the tour of the facility for the Presque Isle County group, but has not been hired by Wolverine at this time.