KMA News
Friday, May 09, 2008

SCIA HEAD REACTS TO GREEN PLAINS MERGER

(Shenandoah) -- Shenandoah's Chamber and Industry Association's administrator is reacting to the news that Green Plains Renewable Energy has entered into a merger. Yesterday, company officials announced they've joined with VBV LLC and it means the creation of a company that will produce 330 million gallons of Ethanol per year. In an interview with KMA's Nick Johansen, SCIA Executive Vice President Gregg Connell says he believes it's a good deal. Connell says it's important in the ethanol business to keep growing. Connell says he believes they were able to bring in two other large producers in different states, so they're not concentrated in one state, so if prices or a drought or accessibility becomes a problem, Connell says the fact that they are now in Indiana and Tennessee gives them more risk-management. Current CEO Wayne Hoovestal will remain the CEO for up to a year, Connell says he also believes the merger will be good for the employees of Green Plains as well. Connell says that the long term results will be sustainability in a business that will have it's peaks and valleys, and that they'll be able to operate much more efficiently in the long term.

GREENWOOD NAMED NEW CEDC DIRECTOR

(Clarinda) -- A Clarinda native is now at the helm of the city's economic development efforts. John Greenwood has been named executive director of the Clarinda Economic Development Corporation. A 1974 Clarinda High graduate, Greenwood returned to the community in 1993 after attending college and graduate school plus spending 11 years in Texas. Greenwood worked in his family's real state business before becoming owner and broker in 2002. Greenwood tells KMA News he accepted the position after being approached by the C-E-D-C Board of Directors three weeks ago. As director, Greenwood says he brings retail experience and a passion for Clarinda to the table. Greenwood says he'll take a three-pronged approach to the position. His first focus is to communicate with existing businesses. Second, he'll focus on developing the downtown area. Third, Greenwood says he'll work to develop the community's industrial park. Greenwood says he expects to work about 15-to-25 hours a week while continuing to run his real estate business.

RUNWAY IMPROVEMENTS PLANNED FOR NEBRASKA CITY AIRPORT

(Nebraska City) -- Nebraska City officials want to make the community's airport more competitive for industrial business. Earlier this week, the Nebraska City City Council entered into an agreement with the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics to grade the parallel runway at the city's airport. Nebraska City Clerk/Treasurer Arnold Ehlers (A-lers) tells KMA News plans call for widening the runway in order to accommodate today's bigger corporate jets. Ehlers says many businesses and industries consider an airport usable for corporate jets as criteria for locating in a community. Ehlers says Nebraska City's airport is busy. Renovation of the 12-year-old runway is estimated at $1 million. Federal funds will cover 95 percent of the project, while city coffers will cover the remaining five percent.

D-O-T DREADS GAS TAX SUSPENSION POSSIBILITY

(Undated) -- Iowa Department of Transportation officials are putting their two cents in on the gas tax suspension possibility. Presidential candidates bicker the profitability for the economy, but Iowa DOT spokesperson Dena Gray-Fisher tells KMA News what it would mean for Iowa is about 90 million dollars less income just for starters. Gray-Fisher says Iowans may see no change in savings at all. The message Gray-Fisher would like to send Congress is the road system is tremendously important to Iowa's economy by supporting jobs, and there would not be a good consumer benefit to the suspension. Gray-Fisher is concerned if congress is unable to find replacement money it will put a hardship on transit companies and eventually cost hundreds of Iowans their jobs. She says legislation just authorized additional funding for Iowa road repair and Gray-Fisher says this is no time to cut back in transportation funding.

LAWMAKERS FINISH FARM BILL AS WHITE HOUSE REPEATS OPPOSITION

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Married farmers with joint incomes of up to $1.5 million a year could still qualify for crop subsidies. That's under a five-year, $300 billion farm bill compromise that would boost the Agriculture Department's food and farm programs. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer reiterated a Bush administration threat to veto the bill. That's as details of the House-Senate compromise emerged yesterday. White House budget director Jim Nussle says the legislation still spends too much, relies on budget gimmicks and doesn't have hardly enough reform. Nussle says that for those reasons, it would still be something that the administration would oppose. Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee and one of the bill's negotiators, said that Bush has not told him directly he'll veto the bill. But White House staffers have made it clear to him that Bush's support is unlikely.

FORMER SWIFT UNION REP GUILTY OF HARBORING ILLEGAL WORKERS

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ A former union representative has been found guilty in federal court of harboring illegal immigrants working at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown. Braulio Pereyra-Gabino was found not guilty of other charges, including false use of a Social Security number and aggravated identity theft. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the harboring charge. Pereyra-Gabino was working as vice president of Local 1149 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union when he was arrested by federal immigration officials in July 2007. Prosecutors contend that he told undocumented workers how to escape detection and protect their fake identities used to get jobs at the Marshalltown plant. Pereyra-Gabino's attorney declined to comment on Thursday's verdict.