click to enlarge

Development to result in 700 new good-paying jobs with benefits.

As a result of cooperative efforts, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is almost finished with the construction of the warehouse/distribution center in Whiteside County.

The 2005 IEZA Fall Conference and Annual Meeting was held in Champaign October 19-21. The Board of Director’s would like to give a great big “THANKS” to Jeanne Gustafson who hosted the conference and coordinated all of the conference speakers and tours. Mr. Tom Costello, Champaign County EDC Chair met early arrivals at a reception held on the evening of the 19th and opened the conference on the 20th with a nice warm welcome.

On August 14, 2003 at 4:11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Ontario, Canada and much of the Northeastern United States were hit by the largest blackout in North American history. Fifty million people lost their electricity, and darkness covered an area from New York to Toronto to Ohio. Lights went out, subways ground to a halt, refrigeration shut down and business stopped cold in its tracks. Days passed slowly before some electricity consumers had power restored. Could that happen here? What would you or your businesses do if this happened? These are really important questions.

click to enlarge

The Lee County Enterprise Zone in Dixon recently announced a high-profile project that had been kept under wraps as the highly secretive “Project Kodiak” for many months. It was revealed by Zone Administrator and President of Lee County Industrial Development Association (LCIDA) John Thompson that the facility was in fact going to be a new 576,000 square foot (expandable to 800,000 SF) packaging and distribution center for the Rayovac Corporation of Madison, Wisconsin.