The Press-Dispatch

B-2 Wednesday, October 14, 2020 The Press-Dispatch e Pike County Clerk's O ce schedule and locations for early voting is listed below: MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Union Comm. Building 3 - 8 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. FINAL DAY to receive application to vote by mail. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - Noon Winslow Comm. Center 8 a.m. - Noon Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Lockhart Comm. Center – Stendal 3 - 8 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - Noon Winslow Comm. Center 8 a.m. - Noon Clerk's O ce 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. ELECTION DAY Gospel Center, Winslow Comm. Center, Otwell Comm. Center 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. OCT 14 21 28 19 26 NOV 2 3 15 22 29 20 27 16 23 30 17 24 31 Clerk's O ce – Second oor of the Courthouse, 801 Main St., Petersburg Winslow Community Center – 411 E. Porter St., Winslow Lockhart Community Building – 10581 S. Church St., Stendal Union Community Building – 3082 N. C.R. 850 W., Hazleton Gospel Center Church – 402 E. Illinois St., Petersburg VOTING LOCATIONS EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS AND TIMES To the voters: structure, but also in the Hoo- siers' businesses and families who will benefit from these improvements for years to come." "However you cut it, it is a wonderful thing for Peters- burg water customers and fu- ture customers," said Mayor Klipsch. "The EDA grant for water infrastructure is critical to our local economic development success," said Ashley Wil- lis, Executive Director of the Pike County Economic Devel- opment Corp. "Many of the prospects that are interested in developing in our communi- ty are heavy industrial or agri- business and both sectors are heavy water users. Companies depend upon water and it's im- perative that the Petersburg Utility Company can deliver water for business attraction efforts. This award is such a wonderful step forward for our community to grow and pro- mote a pro-business climate," said Willis. "Such a big project in such a small city will attract a lot of attention," said Ross. He add- ed, "I'm optimistic this will leverage development and this seed will bring forth fruit." Petersburg water plant is the second-oldest in Indiana and was built in the 1930s. "We are operating at capaci- ty with our pumps often run- ning as much as 23 hours a day to keep up with the demand," said Klipsch. He said ideally, they should only be running about 16 hours a day so they can have time to do mainte- nance on the plant. Currently, the plant produc- es 1.3 million gallons a day to keep up with demand. Its wa- ter customers also include Pike-Gibson and Otwell. Klipsch said the new plant will be able to produce 2.3 million gallons a day, with the pumps operating only 16 hours day. He said the cur- rent water pumps have a ca- pacity of 1,200 gallons a min- ute, while the new pumps will double that to 2,400 gallons. However, he said the new plant is designed so a relative- ly simple add-on would double its capacity to 4.6 million gal- lons a day. "We hope we will need that capacity some day," said Klipsch. He said a recent prospect inquiring about locating here needed 600,000 gallons of wa- ter a day. Klipsch said most prospec- tive industrial prospects' first question is about water capac- ity. The process to get a new water and sewer plant start- ed more than five years ago. Klipsch said in 2015, Peters- burg hosted a meeting with the Rural Development Corp. of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture. They were then named a Desig- nated City. From that meet- ing, Petersburg received two $40,000 grants. One funded a study of the water plant and the other the sewer plant. The studies found both needed to be replaced and expanded. Petersburg received a low-interest loan for the near- ly $11 million water plant proj- ect. "We applied for a grant through Rural Development, but because our water rates are so low, we weren't eligible for a grant," said Klipsch. Later in the process, Peters- burg decided to include a new water line between the well field and the water plant. The line is more than 50 years old. Indiana Region 15 Direc- tor Lisa Gelhausen was in the area and had a representa- tive of the U.S. Dept. of Com- merce Economic Develop- ment Agency with her. While talking with Klipsch about the project and hearing about the water line being added to the project, they knew about the Assistance to Coal Communi- ties (ACC) program, through which EDA will award funds on a competitive basis to assist communities severely impact- ed by the declining use of coal through activities and pro- grams that support econom- ic diversification, job creation, capital investment, workforce development and re-employ- ment opportunities. So they helped Petersburg apply for the grant. Klipsch said the grant basi- cally reduces what would have been a 40 -year, low-interest loan for more than $11 million to just more than $7 million. The water plant project in- cludes a new treatment facil- ity, two new wells, a new line between the wells and plant, and a 750,000 gallon storage tank to be located near the top of Half-Mile Hill, In 2019, Petersburg was named an Opportunity Zone. They are one of 156 Opportu- nity Zones in Indiana. The Opportunity Zones were created by President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to spur econom- ic development in economi- cally-distressed communities nationwide. In June 2019, EDA added Opportunity Zones as an In- vestment Priority, which in- creases the number of catalyt- ic Opportunity Zone-related projects that EDA can fund to fuel greater public investment in these areas. (To learn more about the Commerce Depart- ment's work in Opportunity Zones, visit EDA's Opportu- nity Zones webpage). "I am also pleased that this project will transpire within one of Indiana's 156 Opportu- nity Zones. The Opportunity Zone initiative was created by President Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to provide a unique investment vehicle to transform distressed commu- nities," said Ross. "To date, the Department of Commerce has invested nearly $ 654 million in more than 480 Opportunity Zone projects across the country. These numbers continue to grow thanks, in part, to to- day's grant. We will look for- ward to the groundbreaking of this project, and to watch- ing your region flourish even more," said Ross. He explained that Opportu- nity Zones allow "very wealthy people" and or corporations to defer capital gains taxes up to 10 years by investing that money into an Opportunity Zone. It can either delay or "re- patriate" the tax for the inves- tor and provide much needed capital for the development in the Opportunity Zone. See US Secretary of Com- merce Director William Ross's remarks in their entirety on page A-6. Fall corn harvest underway Fall harvest of corn is now underway in earnest, as farmers take advantage of the dry conditions. Above, Chris Rudolph operates his combine in the cornfield east of Petersburg on Saturday. According to US Dept. of Agriculture statistics, even with the dry conditions less than 40 percent of the state's corn crop has been harvested. The figure is slight- ly less than the five-year average, but significantly higher than last year, when the harvest was about 20 percent. GRANT Continued from page 1

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