The Leaf-Chronicle
By Mark Hicks
Published: December 21, 2008
When the $1.2 billion Hemlock Semiconductor plant was announced Dec. 15, local, state and federal officials praised each other for a job well done, and rightly so. But a legion of behind-the-scenes people helped get the deal together. Locally, the Regional Planning Commission played a role in getting vital information to various people and departments, as did the county's Building Codes Department.
Also, the city's Gas & Water Department, which will supply utility service to HSC, provided various planning data that helped determine the cost of doing business here.
And while others were also involved helping land HSC, the staffs of these entities brought forth key information under a cloak of secrecy.
David Riggins, director of the Planning Commission, understands the need to keep quiet on such a project in the early stages.
"Quite often we are asked to maintain confidentiality," he said. "And by all means, we understand it could be a deterrent for a company if we say something and they aren't ready to announce it yet. We don't want to do anything that could hamper negotiations."
Pat Hickey, Gas & Water general manager, said the secrecy wasn't an obstacle.
"It was called Project Washington but we had no idea what it was," he said. "I actually didn't know what it was until about a year ago."
Hickey said his staff essentially took various scenarios from the company and produced mock bills for operations under the given circumstances. Many times, staff members were simply given the raw data such as Company X wants to locate at Site Y and expected to use Z amount of water.
"Basically, everyone out here (at the Gas & Water Department) had a part in it," he said. "They had no idea what it was, but they knew it was something big."
The role of Rod Streeter, director of Montgomery County Building and Codes, wasn't nearly as involved but just as important to HSC officials who were trying to determine where to build their expansion plant.
Streeter and his staff provided information about code requirements that will have to be met and about what permits will be necessary for construction of such a massive plant.
And even after the HSC announcement, he and his staff will be involved in helping the company through the permitting processes.
"The sooner we can get the information to them, the sooner they can get the processes going and get to the construction phase," he said.
Streeter agreed that keeping Project Washington under wraps was not a problem for him.
Riggins said company officials and representatives would meet individually, rather than collectively, with the various city and county departments.
"There were not a lot of department heads in the same room at the same time," he said.
Riggins said he and his staff worked occasionally on the project for the past couple of years but he had to be prepared for the unexpected.
"When you are called on at a moment's notice, you have to be ready to drop what you are doing and be ready to meet with whoever might need something," he said.
"There's a lot of work yet to come as we dive into (helping the company prepare and then reviewing) the site plan."
Hickey and his staff has also experienced some unexpected turns as they gave and gathered information.
"We do not want to overdesign a (utility) system based on bad numbers. We need to design to the needs of the facility," he said. "But once or twice we had to just start over from scratch."
Riggins enjoyed the experience.
"It's been interesting and fun working with them (HSC)," he said.
"They know what they need, and we've done our best to give them what they need."
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