By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph city council showed their support for a major economic development project.
The council unanimously approved the issuance of Chapter 100 bonds at Monday night's meeting in the amount of $25.5 million. This money will be used for a new, 80,000 square foot manufacturing facility for Cereal Ingredients, Inc. at Eastowne Business Park.
Brad Lau, the senior VP for economic development at the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce, said Cereal Ingredients, based out of Leavenworth, KS, was looking at Leavenworth as a potential location for their new building.
The Chapter 100 bonds, Lau says, are a way to make the bidding process more competitive for the city.
"(The Chapter 100 bonds) is an economic development tool to make St. Joseph and the state of Missouri competitive," Lau said. "We were competing with Kansas and other parts of Missouri as well."
Cereal Ingredients is investing $25.5 million, which will go toward new equipment and jobs over the next three years. The project is expected to create 48 new jobs in St. Joseph within the first three years and 60 within the first six.
St. Joseph mayor Bill McMurray expressed high optimism about the project.
"This is going to be great for St. Joe," he said. "We have a lot of allied industries in the food manufacturing business, so this will be great."
Each of the 48 new jobs will be salaried at an average of $48,000 annually.
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