Nov. 1--A seedling idea born during a casual lunch has blossomed into a multi-million dollar project plan to power State Fair Community College with alternative energy.

In February, Pettis County Presiding Commissioner Rusty Kahrs, SFCC President Marsha Drennon, Judge Robert Liston, Administrator of Sedalia Downtown Development Meg Liston, Pettis County Assessor Dean Dohrman, Benne Media Representative Stu Steinmetz and Lee and Linda Neely sat down to enjoy lunch at the Ivory Grille.

A new president had just been elected and national media attention was focused on President Obama's stimulus package. Those topics dominated the conversation.

"With changes in the administration," Kahrs said. "We talked about how to take advantage of federal and state funding."

Kahrs said the group brainstormed ways to use Pettis County's conservative philosophy to create jobs and better the community.

"We wanted to come up with something to give us the most bang for our buck," Kahrs said.

Within an hour, the group had decided to pursue plans to build an alternative energy facility. By March SFCC was awarded a $50,000 grant to hire a consulting firm to determine the feasibility of the project. Mike Mills, principal with Spectrum Consulting Group, identified available technology and developed expense and revenue projections.

And so the Missouri Center for Waste to Energy project was off to a running start. Over the next four months, the group met with legislators and approached area business about becoming partners in the project. "We never hit a roadblock," Kahrs said.

A look at the project

The proposed Missouri Center for Waste to Energy will be designed to capture landfill gas and convert landfill waste materials and agriculture residue into electricity. The facility also will serve as a hands-on training center for SFCC students and employees in advanced energy systems and related technologies. It also will serve as a test facility for new technologies and educational programs. The center will be located at the Waste Corporation of Missouri Central Landfill site located on U.S. Hwy. 50 in Sedalia.

Mills said the location is ideal because major transmission lines are already in place.

The first phase of the project will establish base operations at the landfill including training and marketing of the facility. During the initial phase, the facility will harvest landfill gas, called methane, into electricity. The second phase will be to turn waste, such as paper, into electricity through a gasification method.