Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Gypsum plant welcomed
Ceremonies for LaFarge manufacturing
By Terry Flynn
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SILVER GROVE — The $90 million LaFarge Gypsum wallboard plant here is already in operation, but local, state and company officials will gather Wednesday for the grand opening ceremony.
LaFarge spokesman Gary Molchan said Monday that members of the LaFarge executive team from France will join Silver Grove council members; the judge-executives from Campbell, Kenton and Boone counties; and representatives from state government for the event, which starts at noon.
“There will be some discussion of the relationship we are building with the community,” Mr. Molchan said. “After the ribbon cutting, there will be tours of the plant.”
The LaFarge facility is the largest in North America and the flagship of the company, which produces more wallboard than any other in the world. The Silver Grove plant will turn out 900 million feet of wallboard annually, the largest single-line production facility in the United States.
The LaFarge plant also has an innovative relationship with Cinergy's Zimmer power plant at Moscow, Ohio, 17 miles upstream.
Zimmer produces calcium
sulfite, a byproduct of burning high-sulphur coal. Cinergy is spending $20 million to convert the waste and provide all the synthetic gypsum for the LaFarge operation. It will save Cinergy about $5 million in annual costs to dump the calcium sulfite in landfills.
“The synthetic gypsum is transported by barge from Moscow to Silver Grove, where it is used in the manufacture of wallboard,” Mr. Molchan said. Nation ally, there is a shortage of wallboard because of a construction boom.
The proximity of the Zimmer facility to Silver Grove was one factor that brought LaFarge to Kentucky, as well as the availability of 200 acres of unused railroad property along the Ohio River and a 10-year, $5.1 million tax break from the state.
The plant employs about 100 people, primarily from Northern Kentucky.
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