Local Chippewa Citizens have been seduced by reports of up to 55 new jobs coming to Chippewa Falls.
The only official number that has been given by Canadian Sand and Proppants Inc. is 20 jobs, with no word as to whether these will be filled locally, or whether they will be mostly specialists imported from Canada.
As we understand it, the plant can be run by 7 (seven) people per shift, so when the plant is operating on a 24 hour basis CSP would require 21 workers.
The City Council and Canadian Sand and Proppants Inc. would like us to think that the truckers and loader operator positions will be new jobs. However most of these jobs will be taken by existing local drivers who wish to work closer to home. Thus it is a deception to claim that these are new positions. In either case this is not a lot of jobs nor a great benefit to our bottom line.
Mayor Hoffman estimates that in 6.5 years or so we will be getting ~$200,000 in taxes. The city will get half ($100,000) and the schools, tec schools and the county will get the rest. It doesn’t sound like $100,000 is much money for disfiguring our land.
What does Canadian Sand and Propants Inc get?
Well the STATED value of the sand leaving the plant is ~$75 dollars per ton. Shipping to Canada is estimated at $40 dollars a ton thus when the sand arrives in Canada, it will have cost CSP $110 a ton. During the trip however the sand has magically been transformed into sand worth $300 to $680 dollars per ton. Is the city missing something here? If the sand is really only $75 per ton here in Chippewa, as Canadian Sand and Proppants Inc. says, then the CITY should buy it and ship it to Canada thus realizing a profit of $190 to $570 per ton.
That would pay off our debts in a hurry!
Another concern has been voiced by an engineer working on a new project near the old Cray building next to the Subway . Their tentative plan has been to put in a new facility in the industrial park. where they would be near the rail line. This new facility would employ 75 to 100 people. They will probably not put in this new facility if loaded trains on the current track (plus 6-8 new spurs shown on the CSP plans) run next to their sensitive machinery, and there is fine silica dust in the air likely to contaminate their computer parts.
If jobs are the point of this exercise, wouldn’t it be better to encourage NON-POLUTING industries with 5 times more open positions than this Tier I heavy industry that will pollute our town?
It is still unclear how the beautiful town of Chippewa Falls will benefit much from turning itself into a dusty mining town.
We are looking for the answer, so if you have any facts or figures, please send them to juiceguy@juiceguy.com.
