New Power Plant

A new $400 million, 270-MW power plant that will be located at the coal mine mouth was announced the morning of my talk in Carmi, IL. JoEllen Seil and her ED group worked on bringing this project in for three years and it has to potential to turn things around for Carmi (population 5,424) and White County (population 15,239). There is excess steam and other potentially synergistic outputs from such a project, not to mention the direct benefit of the new jobs created.

This area is beginning to see the impact of higher oil prices as drilling is again booming. Mayor Jimmie Gaines said about the oil industry, “No industry has had more of an impact on the town in the last 70 years. And, it is starting to look like the 1970s again, with oil drilling starting back up.”

However, the medium age of the county is 8 years older than the national average, as the county has declined in population by 2,000 since 1970. A drive around town shows that there is still a great deal of wealth in the community. Lance Barbre, a local financial manager who showed me around town, told me, “We’ve got about $140 million under management from local people.” The key is was how the locals leverage some of those funds to create more jobs and opportunities locally, or it will end up with the next generation, many of whom have moved out of town.

There are some incredible houses in Carmi for sale. The Castle is a three bedroom, 2-bath house that is massive. Asking price is $495,000. Phebe Port, VP for Estee Lauder, and her husband own the other. Reduced air options out of Evansville (45 minutes away) make it more difficult for her to commute to her job (won’t the new VLJ jets I’ve talked in past posts be great?) and they have their house (called the Fountains) for sale at $465,000. The six bedroom/6-bath house used to be a Bed & Breakfast.