EAST ST. LOUIS - City officials told a crowded room of about 100 people Tuesday how East St. Louis is moving forward economically, outlining projects they said will bring jobs to the city.
It was a town hall meeting for residents, businesses and employers to hear about the projects.
City Attorney Michael Wagner spoke about a potential solar farm development at the Alcoa site in the 3000 block of Missouri Avenue at 29th Street. The area where the solar farm is proposed is an old aluminum smelting site.
Wagner said the area "is environmentally impacted, and Alcoa is covering all of the old mine tailings."
"On top of the mine tailings, we're proposing to build a solar power plant. Once construction begins on the 180-acre project, it would mean up to 600 construction jobs and 30 permanent jobs. The solar farm would mean 20 megawatts of power, which would be enough power to cover the entire city of East St. Louis," Wagner said.
There is no date yet for the groundbreaking, as city leaders are continuing to put the financial piece of the plan together.
"We hope to break ground in 2015," Wagner said.
City lleaders also talked about how work is moving forward to create an entrance to the East St. Louis Port Authority that will allow easy access for trucks.
Bob Bonner spoke about a new 13,000-square-foot Save-A-Lot grocery store he is building in Loisell Village. It should be opened by late June or the beginning of July, he said.
Bonner told the people that he is also bringing a cleaners, The Choice, which is a soul food restaurant, a dry cleaners and a hardware store to East St. Louis. Bonner said he is also building a veterans center.
Sterling Moody said he is bringing a 24-hour grocery store named Harvest to Ninth Street at St. Louis Avenue, which he said should be ready for business in time to sell Thanksgiving turkeys. He said it will be a grocery store that will also sell seafood and have a deli. Moody said the new business will mean 57 jobs, six of which will be full-time and the rest part-time.
MIke Jabar, a business owner, said he was building a new gas station at 25th Street and St. Clair Avenue.
Glenn Ford talked about plans to build an aquaponics center added on to a grocery store that will grow organic vegetables and raise fish. The facility would have 600 tanks that each hold 15,000 gallons, he said.
"Every week, one of the tanks will be harvested for sale to local grocery stores and restaurants. We will grow vegetables horizontally with LED lighting," Ford said.
City Manager Deletra Hudson said plans for a medical district are going forward in the central business district.
Jeremy Taylor said he's planning to bring a new 10,000-seat amphitheater to the city, and reminded the residents how East St. Louis was once a draw for entertainment. There also was talk of building some hotels and more housing.
Mayor Alvin Parks said there will be plenty of jobs across the several developments. Parks told the crowd, "We're right around the corner from real riverfront development."
He added: "We wanted to bring the citizens up to speed on what's taking place from an economic standpoint."
Right now, Parks said, five businesses are under construction. He said the Alcoa site has $140 million of private funding.
"It's a very exciting time in East St. Louis. We've turned the corner and are on our way up," Parks said.
Read more here:
http://www.bnd.com/2015/03/03/3691284_east-st-louis-officials-describe.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy |
|
自訂搜尋
