Cairo unable to move on agenda for development

CAIRO, Ill. -- A special city council meeting called to enact an agenda for revitalizing this impoverished town failed to attract enough members Friday to do business.

After taking the roll -- only one of the six council members showed up for the meeting -- Mayor Paul Farris outlined the stakes for his town and criticized council members unwilling to meet to discuss his proposals. The four agenda items included a $100,000 grant for rebuilding sewer lines, a grant agreement for demolishing derelict properties, a route for heavy trucks and steps needed to move forward with a tax increment financing district.

"If this doesn't happen, this town is finished," Farris said. "We are in critical days."

The sewer upgrades and truck routes are part of a package of improvements to support a biodiesel plant announced for Cairo in August. The plant, which would produce 60 million gallons of fuel each year, is a joint project of Renewable Energy Group of Ralston, Iowa, and Bunge North America Inc., which operates a barge terminal in Cairo.

When announced, promoters of the plant predicted a fall groundbreaking ceremony. So far, no dirt has been moved for construction.

Farris accused the council, by skipping the meeting, of being a reason why the sewers are in bad shape. "We all know the condition of the sewer systems in the city of Cairo," he said. "They are collapsing."

The sewers must be repaired for completion of the truck route that will bring the raw agricultural products to the new plant and move the finished fuel, Farris said.

The biodiesel plant would be at the north end of the tax increment financing district. The new district runs the length of Cairo along the Ohio River, taking in most of the old industrial area of the town as well as the generally vacant properties of the once-thriving central business district.

Tax increment financing, or TIF, designates a major portion of new tax revenue from development to repaying private developers for the costs of construction. The agenda item for Friday would have created a registry of interested parties, allowing the political subdivisions with a stake in the tax revenue to have a voice in the overall plan for the district.

"This is a tool that can open up an additional incentive for people," Farris said.

Contacted later in the day, Councilman Bobby Whitaker said council members didn't take part in the meeting because Farris won't compromise on how to approach the problems. All of the items on the agenda are needed, he said, and the council has approved similar actions only to see them vetoed by the mayor.

"Why should we pass things just to suit him?" said Whitaker, a candidate for mayor in the 2007 elections. "He wants to treat us like children."

One sticking point, Whitaker said, is the council's insistence a designated member must agree to executive actions taken after the agenda items are approved as city policy.

"It is just a check-and-balance system where the council is informed of what is being paid and what is not being paid," Whitaker said.

Failure to pass the measures proposed Friday, Farris said, endangers the biodiesel plant and would send a message to other potential developers that there is little hope of finding a warm reception in Cairo.

The president of the Renewable Energy Group, Nile Ramsbottom, said his company is still committed to making the plant a reality in Cairo. "We are working hard to yet see something happen this fall," Ramsbottom said.

In addition to the biodiesel plant, which is slated to cost $60 million and create 30 permanent jobs, Farris acknowledged rumors about plans for another major industrial projec but said it isn't credible at this time.

There has been talk of major land purchases just north of Cairo, he said, but as far as he knows, no land has changed hands. The project being discussed, he said, is a coal gasification plant.

Compared to the biodiesel plant, city attorney Patrick Cox said, the coal gasification plant has a "lower level of viability." The developer shopping the idea around, who he declined to name, hasn't been able to prove adequate financing to move forward.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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