Cavendish Farms honored by JSDC at annual meeting

The Jamestown/ Stutsman Development Corp. annual meeting was attended by more than 80 business leaders, city of Jamestown, Stutsman County and city of Carrington officials, state and local partners as well as community members. The event was held at the Quality Inn & Suites banquet room in Jamestown.

JSDC Vice President Gary Riffe was this year’s master of ceremonies for the event and introduced guests and speakers before presenting the JSDC 2011 Year in Review. The presentation highlighted projects that the JSDC contributed to in the last year that have created high-skilled jobs and assisted existing businesses with expansion projects.

Guests received an update on Dakota Spirit AgEnergy as well as Spiritwood Energy Park Association from Sandra Broekema of Great River Energy. Great River Energy is leading the development of a proposed 75 million-gallon- per-year (MGY) “hybrid” ethanol biorefinery comprised of a 65 MGY dry mill ethanol plant and a 10 MGY cellulosic ethanol addition at Spiritwood, N.D. The biorefinery is planned in two phases. Phase I is a 65 MGY conventional dry mill ethanol plant that uses corn to produce ethanol, corn oil and distillers grains. Phase II is a 10 MGY cellulosic bolt-on facility that will convert biomass (corn stover and wheat straw) into a variety of higher value energy products including cellulosic ethanol, molasses and lignin pellets. The goal for this biomass refinery will be part of a solution for energy independence and domestic security, and lower carbon intensity for fuel and power. For more information on Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, visit www.dakotaspiritagen

ergy.com.

Great River Energy and JSDC formed a partnership to create Spiritwood Energy Park Association.

Great River Energy recently completed construction of a new combined heat and power plant, Spiritwood Station, which will produce electricity and simultaneously sell industrial process steam to its neighboring businesses. Spiritwood Energy Park is where the interests of JSDC and Great River Energy come together with adjacent land parcels, infrastructure and a business concept to attract new industry and jobs to the area.

The business concept is to leverage the development of a more robust energy and transportation infrastructure than any single business might be able to afford on its own and share the resulting benefits to attract new businesses under a landlord-tenant relationship to Spiritwood Energy Park. For more information regarding Spiritwood Energy Park, visit www.growingjame

stown.com/sepa.

The highlight of the evening’s event was honoring Cavendish Farms for this year’s “Growing Jamestown/Stutsman Award.” Andrew Macleod, director of operations for Cavendish Farms, accepted the award from Mayor Katie Andersen and Stutsman County Commissioner Mark Klose.

Greg Allen, administration manager, gave an overview of the company’s business accomplishments and said that during the last 10 years, Cavendish Farms has had a $335 million impact on the local economy.

Also attending from Cavendish Farms was Bill Meisner, vice president of operations, and Marlee Siewert, accounting manager.

The JSDC Annual Audit for 2011 was presented by Linda Mohn, CPA, Schauer and Associates P.C. The audit was approved by JSDC board members.

The annual report, annual audit and yearly projects (1988-2011) report are available for viewing and download on the JSDC website. Visit www.growingjames town.com/reports to view reports.

Tags: local business, business