April 1, 2008

Catawba County has finalized plans for a community information session focusing on projects the County Government is working on that are located in the southwest part of the county, including a new EcoComplex. Citizens from all parts of the county are invited to “drop in” at their convenience, from 5:00 until 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 21, 2008, in the cafeteria at Jacobs Fork Middle School, at 3431 Plateau Road just south of the intersection of Highway 127 South and Highway 10, to talk individually with County staff and members of the Catawba County Board of Commissioners. There will be no formal program between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. The Board of Commissioners will follow the informal information session by holding its regular mid-month meeting at the school cafeteria, beginning at 7 p.m.

“The Board of Commissioners has traditionally taken meetings ‘on the road’ to areas of the county away from our usual meeting location, every few years,” said Kitty Barnes, Chair of the Catawba County Board of Commissioners. “While we’ve had success in years past when we set up general departmental information, we have decided to focus on issues and services that are important in a specific community for this round of meetings. On April 21, we’ll spotlight the work Catawba County is doing to provide new jobs while also taking care of our environment. Both of these concepts are well demonstrated by our EcoComplex, a set of interconnected business and research facilities that share each other’s waste byproducts and use electricity created by burning methane that’s produced naturally in the landfill; as well as by the Target Distribution Center opening next year near Highway 321 and Highway 10.”

While the emphasis during the drop-in informational session will be on the EcoComplex and the County’s partnership with the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation to promote economic development, other County departments will set up displays of information on the afternoon of April 21.

Staff from the Catawba County Parks Division will have maps of the entire County park system, and a continually running PowerPoint presentation showing photos from the parks. Bakers Mountain Park, located north of Jacobs Fork Middle School, is an important part of the county’s existing parks system. The Southwest Branch of the Catawba County Library, which is located in the Westover Plaza off Highway 127 in Mountain View, will be represented. The Register of Deeds Office and the Sheriff’s Office will also have representatives at the meeting, with displays and information about their services to southwestern Catawba County.

Everyone who drops by the community information session from 5:00-6:30 p.m. will have the opportunity to sign up for the County’s e-mailed newsletter and insure their enrollment in the Community Alert System.

“The EcoComplex is a developing center for green energy, and agricultural and environmental innovation,” said Barry Edwards, Catawba County’s Director of Utilities and Engineering, who first had the vision for the complex. “We are creating a centralized location for research on all aspects of natural energy recovery and utilization, as well as research of alternative fuels and minimization of greenhouse gases for environmental, agricultural and energy use. The EcoComplex is turning the Blackburn Landfill into a resource recovery facility. Methane, which is naturally produced in the landfill, is turned into electricity used by the EcoComplex partner businesses and research entities which, in turn, reuse each other’s waste products.”

The EcoComplex is also a center for economic development for Catawba County. Gregory Wood Products was the first business to locate in the complex in 2005, bringing almost 100 new jobs into the county. Pallet One is the second business in the EcoComplex, using the wood waste from Gregory Wood Products to make wooden shipping pallets. Others are expected to follow, again using the basic concept of sharing waste by-products with other partners within the complex.

The EcoComplex was awarded the prestigious Thomas H. Muehlenbeck Award for Excellence in Local Government in 2007 by the Alliance for Innovation.

The Catawba County Economic Development Corporation, (EDC), has been very instrumental in development of the EcoComplex, as well as the location of a new Target Distribution Center near Highway 321 and Highway 10 southeast of Newton, which will bring about 850 new jobs to the county after it opens in 2009. Staff from the EDC will also be at the drop-in information session on April 21 at Jacobs Fork Middle School, as will staff from the Catawba County Department of Utilities and Engineering with regard to the EcoComplex.

Later in the evening, at 7 p.m., the Catawba County Board of Commissioners will convene a regular meeting, again in the Jacobs Fork Middle School cafeteria. The agenda for the meeting will not be finalized until Wednesday, April 16 and will be available after 3 p.m. that day at www.catawbacountync.com.

The third in this series of “road” meetings across Catawba County will be held on Monday, May 19, at St. Stephens Elementary School, and will spotlight higher education opportunities available in Catawba County.

For more information about the April 21, 2008 community information meeting, from 5 until 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at Jacobs Fork Middle School, at 3431 Plateau Road, and the Catawba County Board of Commissioners meeting to follow in the cafeteria at 7 p.m., you may call the Catawba County Public Information Office at 828-465-8464.