KNIGHTSTOWN — More than 100 people helped the New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corp. celebrate a year of successes Wednesday evening in the Hoosier Gym.
The organization’s president and CEO, Corey Murphy, said 2015 was a good year from an economic development perspective.
“Looking back, we were involved in a little over $10 million in new capital investment, which represents about 50 new or retained jobs. We were also involved in different efforts to bring in a total investment of $900,000, with $500,000 of that for the assessment of brownfields ... and we received a $400,000 grant to work on the access road to New Castle Motorsports Park,” Murphy said.
The current year also has the potential to be a good one for Henry County.
Boar's Head Brand is taking a close look at Henry County for a new distribution facility. Murphy said the company, which just hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at their new meat processing facility on County Road 400 South, is considering building a $10 million, 39,000 square-feet refrigerated facility that would employ approximately 90 people. That would bring Boar’s Head’s total employment in Henry County to nearly 300 if the distribution center becomes a reality.
Henry County is competing with a site in Virginia and another in Ohio for the distribution facility.
“This truly is a competitive project, but we’re in a very good situation,” Murphy said. “We’re excited for this opportunity.”
Murphy also talked about the possibility of developing wind farms in Henry County.
“There’s been a lot of discussion lately about wind, and I would say a lot of misinformation about wind,” Murphy said, pointing out that the Flat Rock Wind project being developed by Apex Clean Energy has been in the works for six years.
Murphy said this effort is nearing the home stretch, with two of three needed agreements in place. Economic development and decommissioning agreements are already in place and negotiations for a road use agreement are close to being finalized, he said.
At present, Apex is looking at erecting 29 wind turbines in southern Henry County, an investment of $66 million, according to Murphy.
NextEra Energy Resources and Calpine have also expressed interest in developing wind farms in Henry County, with NextEra looking at the southeast corner of the county and Calpine investigating the possibility in the northwest corner of the county.
“The mission of the Economic Development Corporation is to grow the tax base here in Henry County and here is an opportunity that has been in the pipeline for longer than I have been here, and I hope the community leadership can separate a project that is nearing its end from a lot of noise, some good and some bad, in other parts of the county,” Murphy said.
He summarized by saying there is a lot of opportunity for economic development in Henry County beyond wind and food processing and praised county and city officials for working together to bring about positive change.