POET now producing corn oil

A number of POET Biorefining plants, including one in Portland, are now producing corn oil.
Twenty-five of POET’s network of 27 biorefineries have installed technology that allows the plants to create corn oil, brining POET’s total capacity to about 250,000 tone per year, which will create 68 million gallons of biodiesel annually.
POET has been selling Voilå corn oil since January 2011, when a plan in South Dakota started producing it on a commercial scale. According to a press release, strong demand for the product prompted upgrades at a number of POET plants.

FBB hires
First Bank of Berne recently announced the appointment of Lindsey Beer to its board of directors.
Beer is a 1997 graduate of Adams Central High School. She has a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and a master’s degree from Indiana Wesleyan.
She has been employed at Zurcher’s Best-One Tire and Auto Care in Monroe for 17 years. She is the operations manager at that location and is part of a team that oversees 250 locations nationwide.

Loans for farmers
The United States Department of Agriculture is offering loans to help small farmers.
Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, told The Associated Press that loans up to $35,000 are being designed to help family-run farms, minority growers and veterans looking to start a farm, who might otherwise have problems qualifying for a loan.
Vilsack said the goal of the program is to create more opportunities for entrepreneurship and to increase employment in the farming industry.
The program reportedly offers a more simplified application process.

Expands in Anderson
Auto engine management and climate control systems manufacturer Keihin North America plans to open in Anderson’s Flagship Enterprise Center, The Herald-Bulletin of Anderson reported.
In its announcement, Keihin officials said they would be consolidating its corporate headquarters to Anderson, following a six-year courtship involving the city, Flagship and the Corporation for Economic Development.
Since 2009, they’d operated at two sites: Crosspoint Office Park in Fishers and a manufacturing site in Greenfield.
Keihin general manager of administration Matt McLaughlin said most, if not all, of the 130 to 175 expected management, engineering and development employees in Anderson would be transfers from those facilities.
At a special meeting Tuesday, the Anderson Redevelopment Commission said the company had signed a six-year lease with Flagship.
“This is a done deal,” said Flagship president and CEO Chuck Staley.
McLaughlin said the company hopes to begin operations April 1, when it takes over the second floor and part of the first floor in the main Flagship building. ARC also voted unanimously to approve roughly $1.3 million in tenant improvements and rent abatement for the company, drawn from the city’s Tax Increment Financing funds.
Over six years, taxpayers would come out nearly $700,000 ahead, said city economic development head Greg Winkler, since there would be an extra roughly $1.1 million in certified tech park state payroll tax from company employees.
Because it’s in the auto industry, Staley also said Keihin would likely work with Honda plastic components supplier, Greenville Technology, Inc., which will have its grand opening at Flagship Friday.
The Japanese company will join an increasingly international set of developers at Flagship, he said.

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