PAXTON – Minutes after Ford County Board Chairman Rick Bowen announced that a Wisconsin developer is no longer interested in Gibson City as a site for a proposed waste-to-energy plant, the board made arrangements to meet with a second company exploring a similar project.

The board called a public meeting with representatives of Eco Manufacturing LLC, based in Cambridge, Mass., for 6 p.m. March 25, at the courthouse in Paxton.

At the meeting, the board plans to discuss a proposed "host agreement" with Eco Manufacturing – the first of two firms to express interest in building the nation's first plasma-gasification waste-recycling facility in Gibson City.

The other company – Alliance Federated Energy, based in Milwaukeee – decided last week not to build a plant in Gibson City, after first meeting with county and city leaders in January.

A March 9 letter to Bowen and Gibson City Mayor Dan Dickey stated that "at this time they do not have any further interest in siting in Gibson City," Bowen told the county board.

The firm said it was concerned about the ability to profit from the sale of renewable energy its plant would produce, Bowen said.

Christopher Maloney, the company's chief executive officer, confirmed Monday that his firm has decided to not develop a plant in Gibson City.

Dickey said Tuesday that he had a lengthy discussion Monday night with Maloney, who told him that the company decided to locate its project in another state but would keep Gibson City in mind for consideration on future projects. Maloney told Dickey a variety of factors came into play, saying that it was a "business decision," Dickey said.

Bowen said Eco officials expressed concerns about Alliance Federated's plant when negotiating a "host agreement" with the county board in recent weeks. Eco officials indicated they wanted to "limit what another company could do" under the agreement, Bowen said, declining to elaborate.

The agreement sets requirements a waste-recycling company must abide by – such as providing training for hazardous waste spills and limiting the use of county roads to haul hazardous waste – to assure residents' "quality of life," Bowen has said.

On Monday, Bowen said Eco "still has interest in the community and has interest in coming out and speaking with us as a board."

Bowen encouraged all board members to attend the March 25 meeting.

"That's, I guess, our opportunity as a board to make sure that the emergency plans (for hazardous waste spills) are in place, that they are assisting us with making those emergency plans," Bowen said. "So, it's a very important meeting that we all should attend."