NEWS RELEASE - March 14, 2008

S.E.E.D. Approves Transfer of Building to New Ownership

The Sweetwater Enterprise for Economic Development (SEED) is in the process of transferring the old Doscher building on 121 East Third Street to new ownership. At a recent meeting, the board of directors approved the transfer of the building from SEED to Jyl DeHaven of Fort Worth, a developer with Green Urban Development. SEED executive director Ken Becker said he would be meeting soon with board attorney Rod Wetsel to put the contract together, and talk about a timetable with the new owners for meeting certain conditions to improve both the exterior and inside of the building. Becker said that when improvements are completed, plans call for the bottom floor to be used for either restaurant or other retail space, with the upper floors used for offices and living quarters. However, he said those plans are subject to change. The board also heard a report from Becker on Advanced Turbine Services (ATS), which had originally contracted with the SEED board to maintain a minimum of seven fulltime employees based on a fulltime worker putting in 2,080 hours in a calendar year — 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. The contract had a provision that ATS could obtain more credit on their loan by exceeding the minimum number of employees. Becker said ATS has now surpassed the minimum and has the equivalent of 9 1/2 fulltime employees, based on the 2,080-hour calculation. “We’re very pleased we’ve been able to help ATS get started,” he said. “They’re doing quite well, and we hope they will continue to grow.” In other business, the board heard from Denice Bailey of DK Communications in Abilene, who has contracted to work with SEED on marketing and special projects. Bailey has been working with the board on a marketing scheme to promote SEED’s participation in the upcoming American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) conference that is scheduled for June 1-4 in Houston. “All of the big wind people, basically across the world, will be there,” Becker said. Bailey’s work also includes sending out advertising flyers and developing banners and an overall theme for SEED’s booth at the four-day conference, which is expected to attract over 7,000 participants from the wind energy. Becker said SEED has also asked TSTC-West Texas to be a partner at the event. “We feel very pleased that our board of directors really liked the idea of making sure that Sweetwater has a presence up there,” he noted. The ultimate goal, Becker said, will be to attract wind-related service industries to Sweetwater and make this area a prime location for companies which do operations maintenance, repairs and other service jobs relating to the wind turbines here.