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A local group expects to take control of the Army's Newport Chemical Depot by the end of this year and plans improvements
to help attract businesses to the western Indiana site.
The depot that since the 1950s produced and stored the deadly VX nerve agent is scheduled to close this summer after destruction
of its stockpile was completed in 2008.
The first projects planned by the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority include updating its 70-year-old water system and
electrical system for use by commercial and industrial companies, said Jack Fenoglio, the group's president.
The authority plans to open about half the depot's 7,100 acres to business development. The rest of the site about 25
miles north of Terre Haute will remain as open land or for agricultural use.
Military contractor Telic Corp. announced plans last year to open an administrative, manufacturing and development center
at the Newport site could bring up to 500 jobs.
Fenoglio said the authority was talking with a coal liquification company that was seeking a 1,000-acre site.
"It would require a lot of coal," he said. "We don't have railroad access now, but at one time there was
rail access from the east and south. We still own right of way to the east."
Fenoglio said the depot has seven deep water wells, four of which the Reuse Authority could improve to market to industries
requiring high volumes of water.
Greg Harbison, a county commissioner in neighboring Parke County, said development of the depot property is vital to the
region's economy.
"Obviously, it is real important to us that we get jobs over there," Harbison said. "We need jobs."
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