Bad news Baard
by M. Stewart
Today’s Morning Journal reports more bad news for Baard Energy. According to the newspaper, a Colorado engineering firm is suing Baard in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court in an attempt to collect on a prior judgment against the company won in federal court.
The newspaper reports that the law firm representing Baard in its appeal withdrew for lack of payment but returned “after the company indicated it now had the money to pay.”
Baard and its subsidiary, Ohio River Clean Fuels, have claimed for several years that they intend to build a $6 billion coal processing plant outside Wellsville. The company in line to supply water to the plant is Buckeye Water District. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on the viability of this project.
Speaking of Wellsville, congratulations to the village on the successful removal of remnants of the former Sterling China Company. You might remember Sterling as the company that abandoned Wellsville, Ohio and moved its operations to Wellsville, New York some years back as part of a semi-successful debt laundering scheme. The village has done well to erase the memory of Sterling China from its landscape.
Perhaps it would be instructive for the residents of Chester, West Virginia to review the history of Sterling China’s departure from Wellsville. As you know, Chester has been saddled with the bombed-out remnants of a former pottery company as well.
As far as I know, there is no law requiring that our local citizens be made to look like fools by every company that passes through the area. History can be very useful for those willing to discover it.
Click here to read about what Sterling China did to Wellsville, N.Y.
Click here to read about what Sterling China did to Wellsville, N.Y.
posted by M. | 8:53 AM
7 Comments:
Probex
From my time involved with the Chamber of Commerce, I attended one of Baard's "pitches" several years ago in Wellsville. It reminded me of all the grand plans Mountaineer had, including a signature golf course, auto race track, amusement park, riverside resort with docking facilities, etc.
It's good to take these companies with a large grain of salt and healthy dose of pessimism, and most importantly, like Wellsville, NY., not a frigg'n penny of local money.
Of course, they could prove us wrong, and MRTGR has provided WV with quite a few years of prosperity, but alas, the pie is getting awfully cut up with OH and PA online.
Didn't the mayor of Wellsville (Ohio) play a role in the Sterling fiasco? As I recall he let Sterling slide on a substantial unpaid sewage bill. Was that Surace or Lascola?
god, i remember covering that story; what a nightmare that was. it was like being caught in a room full of wires, trying to find a needle on the floor.
Carl and Jeff--
Yes, I remember covering it too. It was Surace who forgave the Sterling sewage bill. He had not been in office long, and in Joe's defense, Sterling ownership was telling everybody that if they could get help with their debt, they would keep the Wellsville plant open. Of course they were lying through their teeth, but Surace didn't know that. Sterling also owed BWD an incredible amount on its water bill, which they hadn't paid in years. I don't recall what happened with the water bill, but I kind of doubt if it ever got paid.
Sterling took everyone for a ride, including the county port authority. This is yet another example of a company defrauding virtually every entity it did business with, and no one was punished or held responsible for anything.
How would the MAYOR have the authority to forgive a sewage bill? That would have to be a council decision wouldn't it (in the absence of a board of public affairs or board of utilities)?
thinking--
I can't remember how it all went down, but I assume you're right. Most likely the mayor took it before council, and council agreed.
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