Monticello Live

It was announced at a recent Intermodal Authority meeting,  that SeaArk Marine has agreed to sign a “letter of intent” with the intermodal authority, which may eventually lead to the Monticello boat manufacturer re-locating to the new industrial site, just west of Monticello, across from the sports complex.

The intermodal authority has applied for a grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA), and one of the requirement for further consideration is a promisory “letter of intent” from an industry that would become a part of the facility. This part of the process of finalizing the grant process will hopefully lead to funding by EDA.

John Lipton, chariman of the SEARIA explained that the possible EDA funding could include a $1.9 million fund asset (grant), which would be required to be matched by $1.2 million of local support. Of that $1.2 million, approximately half would be “in-kind” improvements, estimated at $606,806. This would be accomplished by the installation of water mains and other projects that will be performed by the local entities.

The EDA money would likely be used for water and sewer work, as well as a water tank.

The possible SeaArk Marine re-location is the result of an on-going negotiation, which still will be “based on a lot of factors taking place, and many commitments being accomplished, many of which are out of the hands of SeaArk and the intermodal authority,” John McClendon of SeaArk Marine told MonticelloLive.

McClendon added, “It has always been our intention to modernize our physical plant, and to consolidate our operations into a more manageable flow.”

From a bystander’s perspective, although the letter of intent has been announced, there are a lot of hurdles that must be crossed before the “possible” move could become a “likelihood.”  If everything does fall into place, this process may take a couple of years, or it could happen sooner. Lipton told MonticelloLive, “I hope this become a reality.”

McClendon added, “I really appreciate the intermodal board’s continuing efforts, as well as all others that were involved, for trying to make this a reality for both SeaArk Marine, and for the intermodal facility.”

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 7:10 am and is filed under Intermodal facility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.