Canton Lands “Green Jobs” at Former
Brownfield Site — Hydrodec unveiled its one-of-a-kind
oil reprocessing facility to state and federal officials
this past month. The British-based company has created 30
environmentally friendly jobs thanks to this new Australian
technology. With a capacity of 8 million gallons per year,
the plant will recycle spent transformer oil and convert
it into new transformer oil which can be used and reused
by utilities across the country with virtually zero emissions.
Hydrodec President John Cowan said the breakthrough process
can remove PCBs and other organic pollutants. The PCBs are
chemically broken down – “demanufactured” in
Cowan’s words. Cowan said Hydrodec chose Canton because
it is centrally located within 500 miles of the largest utility
users in the country and because of its favorable environment
for business. Oil comes in by truck and rail and goes into
storage tanks. The plant can handle up to 15 semi-tankers
(98,500 gallons) or more than four rail tankers (92,000 gallons)
per day. The process is highly automated with a central operating
room monitoring all functions. Hydrodec has an additional
three acres to expand the operation in the Stein Industrial
Park. City officials offered Hydrodec a corporate income
tax incentive and a grant based on employee income taxes
($439,000 over five years). The State of Ohio will reimburse
Canton for building a road to the site and also offered the
company a 40% Job Creation Tax Credit for seven years with
job training grants as well. To read more about the company
opening, click
on this Canton Repository article.
Health Card Call Center
Locating at Old Republic Building in Massillon — Patent
Health will not be occupying the Republic Steel building in Massillon, but a
sister company will be. Universal Health Card, LLC, part of the Arthur Middleton
Holdings, will take shape at the location. Doug Waikem and Rodney Napier have
formed the company which offers a medical savings plan that provides members
with discounts on health care needs. About seven years ago, Doug Waikem of Waikem
Motors started offering customers a health benefit plan similar to Universal
Health Card for customers who didn’t have regular health insurance. The
State of Ohio's $2.1 million Job Creation Tax Credit previously given to Patent
Health will be applied to Universal Health Card, LLC. In June 2007, Napier Ohio
Development bought the former Republic Steel office building and later unveiled
a plan to create 500 jobs for the ever
expanding Patent Health. To read more about this project, click
on the Independent
article.
Education Rates Increasing at All Levels in Stark
County — Recent
figures
released by the U.S. Census Bureau, as part of its 2007 “American Community
Survey”, show education rates increasing at all levels in Stark County.
With a gain of over 4% in bachelor’s degree or higher category since 2000,
Stark has substantially narrowed the gap with the State of Ohio average on this
important benchmark. The county has also tied the state average on the percentage
of residents with associate degrees. To get more details, click
on this Stark
Education Partnership article.
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