Date: (?) 2012
Story Courtesy of The Town Talk
Written by Jeff Matthews
Officials from Sundrop Fuels Inc. as well as local and state government and business leaders agree wholeheartedly on this -- they would love to fill as many of the 150 jobs as possible at the company's planned biofuels plant near Alexandria with Louisiana natives.
"I'm tired of seeing our bright young people come home twice a year -- at Thanksgiving and Christmas -- before going back to Atlanta or Denver," Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a familiar refrain. "These are the kind of good-paying jobs that will keep Louisianians at home."
"We would be happy to find some good Louisiana graduates wasting time in Houston or Dallas who want to come back," said Sundrop Fuels Chief Executive Officer Wayne Simmons.
Sundrop Fuels announced in November it will build its first production facility off Interstate 49 in the Rapides Station area, north of Alexandria. The company is banking its future on the plant and its unique conversion process that turns biomass and natural gas into ready-to-use transportation fuel.
The plant is expected to employ approximately 150 people, with an average yearly salary of $58,000 a year. Economic development professionals have predicted it will create more than 1,000 other indirect jobs.
Sundrop is expected to break ground on the facility early this year.
"We're excited about the early impact, which is the construction impact," said Jim Clinton, president of Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance. "We should do very well with that. You're talking about a $450 million project that local companies will be involved in. So just at the first cut, it's a really big hit up front. Then, of course, we're very pleased with the 150 jobs, and all the indirect jobs."
Simmons said hiring at the top level will start first, so those employees can work with the engineering and design team. From there, he said, it will be "a gradual ramp-up" to filling all the jobs.
"So if we hire at the senior level around mid-year, the end of the year would be the next tier," Simmons said. "The largest part of the hiring would be in 2013 with an eye to being completely staffed by early 2014."
Simmons said he expects the large part of the plant's work force to be from the area and the state.
"A couple of people will move down," he said. "But it's largely going to be indigenous."
"We shouldn't have any problems filling those jobs," Clinton said.
Simmons said about 90 of the facilities jobs will be operator jobs, with the rest broken down fairly evenly among engineering and supervisory/management.
"One of the challenges is this plant has a lot of different unit operators," he said. "It's a complex plant."
Simmons said a lot of training will be required. The state will be heavily involved through its FastStart workers training program.
Clinton welcomes the challenge of training workers for the plant.
He's particularly enthused about getting local educational entities involved and improving their capabilities to train skilled workers in the future. State education officials gave the go-ahead last year for Central Louisiana Technical College to expand into more of a full-service community and technical college to meet such challenges.
"Every time you do one of these things, you're building capacity for the next one," Clinton said.
Clinton, long a proponent of raising the knowledge base of the area work force, is also pleased at the large percentage of highly skilled jobs the plant will provide.
"These are significant jobs," Clinton said. "Engineering, chemical, technical-intensive jobs. That's a good thing. That's what you want in your work force."
Written by Jeff Matthews
Officials from Sundrop Fuels Inc. as well as local and state government and business leaders agree wholeheartedly on this -- they would love to fill as many of the 150 jobs as possible at the company's planned biofuels plant near Alexandria with Louisiana natives.
"I'm tired of seeing our bright young people come home twice a year -- at Thanksgiving and Christmas -- before going back to Atlanta or Denver," Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a familiar refrain. "These are the kind of good-paying jobs that will keep Louisianians at home."
"We would be happy to find some good Louisiana graduates wasting time in Houston or Dallas who want to come back," said Sundrop Fuels Chief Executive Officer Wayne Simmons.
Sundrop Fuels announced in November it will build its first production facility off Interstate 49 in the Rapides Station area, north of Alexandria. The company is banking its future on the plant and its unique conversion process that turns biomass and natural gas into ready-to-use transportation fuel.
The plant is expected to employ approximately 150 people, with an average yearly salary of $58,000 a year. Economic development professionals have predicted it will create more than 1,000 other indirect jobs.
Sundrop is expected to break ground on the facility early this year.
"We're excited about the early impact, which is the construction impact," said Jim Clinton, president of Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance. "We should do very well with that. You're talking about a $450 million project that local companies will be involved in. So just at the first cut, it's a really big hit up front. Then, of course, we're very pleased with the 150 jobs, and all the indirect jobs."
Simmons said hiring at the top level will start first, so those employees can work with the engineering and design team. From there, he said, it will be "a gradual ramp-up" to filling all the jobs.
"So if we hire at the senior level around mid-year, the end of the year would be the next tier," Simmons said. "The largest part of the hiring would be in 2013 with an eye to being completely staffed by early 2014."
Simmons said he expects the large part of the plant's work force to be from the area and the state.
"A couple of people will move down," he said. "But it's largely going to be indigenous."
"We shouldn't have any problems filling those jobs," Clinton said.
Simmons said about 90 of the facilities jobs will be operator jobs, with the rest broken down fairly evenly among engineering and supervisory/management.
"One of the challenges is this plant has a lot of different unit operators," he said. "It's a complex plant."
Simmons said a lot of training will be required. The state will be heavily involved through its FastStart workers training program.
Clinton welcomes the challenge of training workers for the plant.
He's particularly enthused about getting local educational entities involved and improving their capabilities to train skilled workers in the future. State education officials gave the go-ahead last year for Central Louisiana Technical College to expand into more of a full-service community and technical college to meet such challenges.
"Every time you do one of these things, you're building capacity for the next one," Clinton said.
Clinton, long a proponent of raising the knowledge base of the area work force, is also pleased at the large percentage of highly skilled jobs the plant will provide.
"These are significant jobs," Clinton said. "Engineering, chemical, technical-intensive jobs. That's a good thing. That's what you want in your work force."
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