A group of northwest Iowans is laying the groundwork for a new ethanol plant near Marcus, in Cherokee County. Local farmer Daryl Haack is vice chairman of “Little Sioux Corn Processors.” Haack says shares in the plant are being sold now and they hope to raise 20-million dollars from farmer/investors, line up a bank loan in May and break ground in June. He says it takes 16 months to build the plant, so they could be processing by the fall of 2002.Haack says market research shows now’s a good time to build because there’s a shortage of ethanol, but a lot rides on California, where officials want to be exempted from federal rules requiring use of a fuel additive like ethanol.Haack says over 100-million bushels of corn are shipped out of the 10-county region, so there’s enough to supply the 15-million bushels of corn the plant will run through annually.The plant Haack envisions would produce about 40-million gallons of ethanol each year.