The state Transportation Commission approved funding Tuesday to help with roadway access to a proposed fertilizer plant in Wright County.
The director of the DOT’s Systems Planning Office, Craig Markley, says the state funding is for the ReNewtrient 1 plant. He says the commission awarded $144,000 from the Revitalize Iowa’s Sound Economy program to help build 2,000 feet of roadway to connect access to Highway 69 southeast of Clarion.
The plant will take a byproduct of the poultry industry and turn it into something useful. “They’re a nutrient recover facility. Their proposal is to take chicken manure and process it into both the liquid and the dry — and then sell it throughout the states,” Markley says.
Markley says the state transportation funding will help improve access to the plant site with the promise of jobs attached.
“It’s proposed to create 12 new full time jobs within three years with a little over 25 million dollars in associated capital investment,” he says. He says the jobs will pay well for the area.
“At 22-25 an hour it’s quite a bit over the 16 dollar-an-hour average labor shed wage rage — so very good jobs,” Markley says. Developers says the plan will process some 150,000 tons of chicken manure each year from area poultry plants into dry and liquid fertilizer.