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(Lincoln, NE) Gov. Dave Heineman has awarded $77,500 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to Dakota County to help improve Knox Blvd., which leads to the Siouxland Ethanol plant being built just west of Jackson in the northeastern part of the state.
“I’m very pleased the state was able to provide funding to help make this access road more useful for the Siouxland plant, and look forward to seeing this valuable economic development project completed in the next year,” Gov. Heineman said.
The $75,000 grant will help restructure, regrade and pave Knox Boulevard to connect U.S. Hwy. 20 with the Siouxland Ethanol plant in order to support the grain transport trucks, tanker trucks and other vehicles driving to and from the plant once production begins. Dakota County will use the remaining $2,500 to cover administrative costs, and will match the grant by providing $100,000 for improvements to Hwy. 20, bringing the total for the project to $177,500.
The $80.5 million plant will employ 30 full-time staff with an initial production of 55 million gallons of ethanol annually. Construction began last November and the plant is expected to be ready for production in 2007. More than 40 jobs in support industries, such as trucking and wholesale trade, are expected to be created over time as a result of the Jackson ethanol project.
The CDBG program is administered by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development from federal funds that are made available to Nebraska by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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