Journal-News.com

MIDDLETOWN — Business and labor leaders urged Middletown City Council on Tuesday night, April 15, to approve a rezoning to allow the construction of a coke-making plant.

Fred DiBiasi, president of the Chamber of Commerce serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton, emphasized the project is "vitally important to the city of Middletown" and asked the council during its Tuesday, April 15, meeting to "approve the project without delay."

The Middletown Planning Commission has recommended the rezoning of 157 acres off Ohio 4 from low-density residential to industrial use. The property has been identified as the likely site of a $340 million coke-making and electric generation plant proposed by SunCoke Energy of Knoxville, Tenn. SunCoke and AK Steel Corp. have reached a 20-year agreement that would make AK the exclusive customer for the coke and electricity produced by the plant.

Citing the importance of the project's potential economic impact on the city, speakers Tuesday — who also included Alan McCoy, AK Steel's vice president of government and public relations, Charles Ellis, a vice president with SunCoke Energy and D. Scott Rich, president of Local Lodge 1943 of the International Association of Machinists — urged the council to approve the recommendation as emergency legislation when it comes up for consideration at its May 6 meeting. The council did agree to consider the matter as an emergency.

If the council approves the legislation as an emergency measure, the action would immediately take effect. State law does not allow emergency legislation to be subject to a referendum vote.

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