this is yet another GCED boondoggle along with the mayor that cost taxpayers millions of dollars! ask the mayor how much the city had in this mess. why does the city keep throwing our money away without any guarantee? if this is progress lets send it to china too.

I personally know people who worked at this fiasco and lost their jobs. They were kept hanging on with the promise of production for months. Its really sad how business if you want to call thieves that operate. Good job GCED. Anyone want to buy a house cheap???

The business tanked before it could even open its doors. Man, that was such a smart investment!

Yet more proof that the current leadership at GCED needs to go, how many community funds were spent luring this boondoggle that is now claiming bankruptcy before producing a single drop of product? I realize markets have changed, but they change every day and planning for something long-term has to consider that potential for change.

Although I thought this biodiesel plant would be different, this just shows that it isn't immune to the highly overrated business of biofuels. Corn ethanol is a scam. Why do you think most of those plants are failing or never getting built? That isn't to say alternatives aren't needed. But we need long term solutions, not fake businesses propped up by greedy businessmen and farmers.

This is getting beyond bad.

Factory closings, layoffs, bankruptcy and so many people without a job. GCED gets on board for this ridiculous "Reverse Trade Mission" and brings all these people in for what? They already make the same stuff we do, only cheaper and less quality.

You people at GCED better get to work before this county is lost in the shuffle.

It seems that none of the companies in the Beatrice area seem to be doing good, Irwin, Accuma, now the Biodiesel plant. Maybe time to make some major changes somewhere up the line or look into areas with more stability.

I believe in GCED, these are the people who are trying to bring business to Gage County, and provide jobs for those who don’t have jobs. So the one’s that blame them for wasting blowing the tax payers money, that’s Skullduggery. It’s a community of one a nation of one, people need to take a stand to go forward it’s people that b**ch about what they pay for taxes probably don’t even file for them, or their in the lower tax bracket and just don’t have the income to put gas in their cars, and now my taxes are paying for them, that’s what a community is all about, people help out others. Markets do change everyday peoples need change everyday, I think for the ones, that all so upset with GCED you should make a change then, take a stand, take action, but remember, “You are what you make of it”. For all of you who don’t believe in your community should be shamed, ask your self something WHY DO I LIVE HERE, and then answer your self. Just to day Lehman Brothers filled for bankruptcy, it’s not just your community or your tax dollars going out the drain, the housing market is s**t right now, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, went under and taken over by are government, many of you out their probably had your mortgage service though them. I want to say THANK YOU GCED for giving are community a chance to move forward and open up gate ways to people in are community, I believe in what your doing, it’s what Gage County needs, leaders that don’t sit around and b**ch about where their taxes are going, people that keep trying for are community, businesses, schools, and are up and coming, THANK YOU

The main thing that hurts our community is when GCED is working on confidential projects behind the scenes and you people "crazy happenings" get online and blast the community and talk about plant closings with no knowledge of what is going on. Why say such negative things about the community of Beatrice/Gage County? The economy is hurting as a whole right now and business is down for everyone. Oh and by the way...the city had zero dollars invested in the Biodiesel facility...get your facts straight before blasting agencies online.

I am still waiting for you all to post what i wrote, hello

GCED constantly takes credit for anything that happens in gage county. the fact is most of this stuff is done without their help or interference. they have ran more off than they get. ask members of their board to disclose what interests or income they get off these behind the scenes deals. that outfit should be for the benefit of our area not their personal money maker. a good example is the premature announcement of the hospital deal. ask anyone who was out there about chairman garnetts ten minute apology for what he did. funny how nothing with garnetts name attached to it gets on the blog unless he ok's it or it makes him look good. must be controlled by how many advertising dollars are spent with the paper. thats too bad. others names get on here all the time. double standard in the news.

From www.siteselection.com - "Beatrice Biofuels has been in the start-up phase this fall with its full staff of 21. David Blythe, who founded the company and is now its managing director, expects the 50-million-gallon facility to be operating in November. Blythe, who lives in Lincoln, wanted to do the project in the region. Beatrice was selected for its proximity to oil seed crushers and because of incentives.
"The city of Beatrice worked with us, stepped up with an incentive program and financing and became a partner with us," Blythe says."

So the director of the plant says the city stepped up with incentives and financing, but you're saying that didn't happen?

To "Find Something Better To Do" You need to get your facts straight! The electrical and water departments of the city of Beatrice spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their services in for the Biodiesel plant. Check the facts.

The plant also received $2 million dollars in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds, which were supposed to be repaid through the increased taxes paid due to development of this property. Judging by the fact the owner is now bankrupt I don't think you can foresee any of those additional taxes being paid anytime soon if ever.

Still claim this company got nothing from Beatrice?

It would be interesting if the Daily Sun could do a follow up story in the couple of days about exactly how much city (and county) money was invested in the biodiesel plant.

Talk to some silent but good companies in the industrial park. they are hurting and GCED hardly pays lip service to their needs. more time spent on existing factories would help more than what GCED does looking for new scam deals that beneifit only a few wealthy people in our town.

You do not have all your facts straight, so no need to respond.

the reason GCED is getting talked about is because thet are always wanting the headlines to make themselves look good! they get thousands of taxpayer dollars and for what? the truth is they don't earn the money. one great employee and a director that does nothing more than paul garnett tells her to do. ask some of those people what they get out of many deals that go through GCED. this group is self serving and personally greedy.

OK best I can tell someone approves and posts comments once a day around here? Actually that's likely just Monday through Friday as well. Funny how the sister papers such as Lincoln post stuff up in about a half hour, seems like the same person could handle comments on this site as well?

To the comment's from Find something Better to do, I like what you had to say, it's so true everyone one that wrote into this blog, really dont even know what is going out, they go off of "Hear Say". KEEP UP THE GO WORK GCED

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

If Beatrice wants to recruit jobs and young professionals this is not a good way to sell Beatrice. I left Beatrice after graduation because of the mentality of the small town, where instead of pulling together as a community, YOU or some of YOU have to blame either the city, county, GCED, or others. To those of YOU who know so much about economic development, then start acting professional and start finding a solution. Now that may be a challenge for YOU. Let me help YOU- There are classes in economic development that YOU can take, like basic 101 stuff. Gage County Economic Development markets and recruits business and industry, but it does not run the business, some of YOU need to educate yourself before blogging YOU are showing that Beatrice has non-intelligent species. I know I do not want to live in Beatrice, not with this attitude. I doubt that any business or potential recruiter to Beatrice will find this a climate they would want to be a part of ... the only way to combat this attitude is for the businesses and residences to take a stand and stop this incessant uneducated blogs and post POSITIVES. This small act will show outsiders we are a community that has what it takes to create a great place to live and work. Pull together not pull apart. Oh, by the way, thank you for the four lane highway, it makes the trip to Beatrice easier and thanks to GCED for the Industrial park and providing employment for my family and friends. From what I know, if it was not for the private sector, Beatrice would be in ruins, UGLY politics and uninformed citizens in coffee shops are just a link to the downfall of any community. Wake up, get a clue, get educated and quit pointing the finger or better yet, stand in front of the mirror and guess whose finger is pointing at YOU.

the local economy is in trouble because the GCED people have done nothing but look out for themselves in the deals that were made. disclosure should be reqiured for anyone on their board. if they have nothing to hide they shouldn't care who knows what they invest in. if that bothers so much why don't they get off the board? seems a job that doesn't pay anything would not be hard to quit. kind of dispells any crap about about doing for the good of beatrice .

How many people still work in factories in Beatrice or surrounding communities? The Borgman Crate and Pallets is moving to Blue Springs. How much money was given/lent to them when they started in Beatrice? Did they stay just long enough to get a great start. Men/women are tring to find jobs, when there are none to be found or 50 apply for one job. This is a great place to live but as long as the jobs keep leaving so will the people.

I guess adding posts once a day was giving too much credit, maybe tomorrow.

To Tara: Hi. You don't live here so your comments about the citizens of this town are largely invalid on that point alone. Part of the problem is that we're getting just a little bit tired of watching our jobs get outsourced to China and Mexico. We can attract all the manufacturing jobs we want, but it doesn't really matter if the work is just going to be shipped overseas the minute the company thinks it can save a nickle. Store Kraft is currently hiring (or has hired) an Outsourcing Specialist so that they can start shuffling work off to China. How does that bolster confidence in our community in regard to the local economy? Husqvarna, Neapco, Acuma, and others are constantly laying off workers. Again, how does this bolster confidence? What you're reading here is backlash from a community that can't find consistent and stable work. The Beatrice Biodiesel plant was supposed to provide this, and it has only provided us with EPIC FAIL before production could even begin. Forgive us if we aren't exactly upbeat about that.

Please, you dont even live here so get off it. Our little ecomomy here is in big trouble. Big trouble. We are paying a lot of money to our local government to help us out and the GCED seems not to be able to pull their heads out long enough to do any good. I say they are fired!

Job Loss seems to be a big issue these days. And no wonder, Jobs are being shipped over seas at an alarming rate and that appears to be the case even for small towns like Beatrice and DeWitt and hundreds of other small communities around the United States.
Lets face it people, America is not the country it once was and I have serious doubts that we will ever get back to where we were again. Look at the auto industry for example. Granted they are huge but never the less a prime example of what's wrong with America today. The auto industry really began in America. We had many young inovators like Henry Ford who had vison and foresight to be able to take a risk and see it through to a successful conclusion. But what has the auto industry become today? GM used to be innovators and come up with fantastic designs that would knock you back on your heels when the new models came out each year. Look at the classics like the 57 Chevy, The Malibu, The Corvette, The Impala line. They were beautiful and amazing cars! But now all of a sudden we see cars advertized that have european styling and every car looks alike and seldom do they change styles or designs from one year to the next. And the American workers have become a bunch of cry babies who are greedy and want more more more. Well, we got more and more until we broke the comapnies we work for. At first comapnies tried to stay afloat by outsourcing parts and then finally having cars actually built in Mexico and other places. Jobs were chsed away from this country because Americans just got too greedy. I know there are those out there who will be upset by these words and won't want to hear it, but the work ethic and the constant effort to improve ANYTHING is gone in America. Yes I know there are still those who work hard and are dilligent at their jobs. But the vast majority have become just cry babies and all they care about is waht they can get for themselves. Poor planning leads to poor results. Lack of foresight leads to diaster. I'm sure that played a major role in the failure of the Biodiesel plant before it could even begin operations. And it has been the downfall even of companies with so called smart men at the helm like Lehman Brothers. You can party and live the high life for a while but sooner or later we all have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Success is a community effort, a statewide effort, a national effort. All too often the ones who sit back and complain the loudest are the ones who have done nothing at all. Everyone needs to wake up and invest some effort or the whole nation will end up like the Biodiesel plant. Belive me, there are people out there who would love to see America fail and they are working towards that goal. If we continue to whine and cry about how bad things are and do nothing, then it will just get worse. It's time to wake up America, Nebraska, Beatrice and all the little communities that make up our once great nation. America has been the victim of poor planning for quite a few years now and we are beginning to see the results. I for one will be very sad to see her go. How about you? But I don't feel like giving up just yet. I think we still can have a chance if we just wake up and do something about the poor planning that is killing us all. If not, then the party is over. Turn out the lights when you leave.