INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — INEOS New Planet BioEnergy needs more time to hire its employees and claim $297,000 in funds through Indian River County’s Jobs Grant Program.
The Indian River County Economic Development Council unanimously supported INEOS’s request for the extension and changes to the schedule of when the jobs would filled.
“There’s a lot to do to get this up and running,” Senior Economic Development Planner Bill Schutt told the council prior to the vote.
Instead of hiring 50 people before the end of the year, INEOS now plans to hire 53 by the end of March 2012, splitting the schedule into three phases.
“That’s not unusual,” Schutt said of jobs grants being planned over three phases.
The plans call for adding three additional qualifying jobs, but INEOS won’t receive more funds as part of its jobs grant. Due to shifting the salary levels, INEOS would actually receive $13,000.
Initially, the biofuel firm had expected to hire 10 employees at 75 percent of the county’s average wage and 40 employees at 150 percent of the county’s average wage.
Now, company officials plan to hire 37 people at 100 percent of the county’s average wage and 16 people at the 150 percent level, which equates to $297,000 instead of the originally planned $310,000.
The Economic Development Council also agreed to support INEOS New Planet BioEnergy’s request to the state for a 1-year extension on it Qualified Target Industry incentive application.
INEOS President Tex Carter told the council that the firm has already hired four people that qualify under the jobs grant program and is beginning the recruiting process to fill other positions.
Such positions he is looking to fill include a health and safety professional, electrical and mechanical engineers, operators, lab technicians and supervisors, among others.
The company recently went to Cape Canaveral to reach out to potential new hires let go due to the ending of the NASA Space Shuttle program.
“We’re really trying to tap into that,” Carter said.
Workforce Solutions, too, has been involved in locating recruits, according to Chief Executive Officer Richard Stetson.
“We’re fully engaged,” he said.
Carter told the council that the need for additional time for hiring the new employees under the jobs grant was due to timing.
“It wasn’t really a money issue,” he said, “but a sequencing of money issue.”
Carter explained that they did not get a particular contractor in place in time to get moving on the hires.
As for the facility itself, located at 925 74th Ave. SW near the county landfill, Carter said they are making progress.
“We’re starting to build up,” he said, of construction going vertical. “It’s really getting exciting.”
So far, INEOS New Planet BioEnergy has spent about $8 million in construction and start-up – half of which has been spent in Florida. Of that $4 million, approximately half has been spent in Indian River County, Carter said.
“We’re doing our best to spend local,” he said, explaining that more would have been spent in the state if there were a larger supply of steel in Florida.
Carter said he expects to have the biofuel plant up and running and producing ethanol by this time next year.
Initially, the plant is expected to produce about 8 million gallons of the fuel annually with the potential for expanding to 50 million gallons annually at a later date.