Dirtwork will start in mid-October and construction after the first of the year on the 54.3-million-gallon Southwest Energy LLC ethanol plant at the Perry elevator site west of McCook.

Dean Buesing of Granite Falls, Minn., director of SW Energy, said Tuesday morning that the plant will be ready for start-up the first part of 2008.

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Buesing and Doug Finstrom of SW Energy brainstormed at the site Tuesday with Scott Anderson and Walter Holland of TIC (The Industrial Company), Centennial, Colo; Mike Van Es of Interstates Engineer-ing, Sioux Center, Iowa; and Don Suda and Phil Bailey of Southwest Public Power District, Palisade. Also looking over the site were Mike Adams of Adams Construction, Arapahoe; and Woody Falkena, Western Engineering Co., North Platte.

Buesing said the plant will initially produce 54.3 million gallons of ethanol annually using locally-grown corn. It will be built with the capability, he said, to expand to 120 million gallons a year.

Anderson, of TIC, said that 50 TIC staff members will work on the Perry site. About 250 craftworkers will include TIC employees and sub-contractors.

Anderson said TIC brings its own construction force with lots of core trades. For the Perry project, TIC will hire local skilled labor if qualified and local laborers.

TIC is also building ethanol plants at Madrid and at Cambridge. Anderson said Madrid's project is in the middle of building foundations and the Cambridge site is finishing dirt work. "We just getting started here," he said.

Landowners, contractors and developers gathered at the plant site Tuesday afternoon to discuss expansion of the ethanol project. Originally, SW Energy had purchased 56.9 acres from the Shepherd family, but now the company is seeking additional land for future expansion and drainage.

The discussion took place at the proposed plant site, located west of McCook near Frenchman Valley's Perry grain storage facilities.