The Marion County Commission partnered with the EDC to contract National Site Location Consultant John Rhodes, Moran, Stahl & Boyer to gather economic intelligence on Marion County’s “site readiness,” to produce a Business Park Strategy to further the EDC’s business recruitment and expansion efforts.

The Business Park Strategy is now available to download.

The City of Ocala Utility Services announces that effective immediately residential rates will drop an estimated 9.5 percent and commercial rates 10 percent, as a result of a 24 percent decrease in bulk power cost. This timely reduction will be reflected on the January billing statement.

Matt Brower, assistant city manager in charge of utilities, is happy to announce that this significant reduction will place the city’s rates on the same level as other area utilities.

“Since 2008 we have worked extremely hard to lower rates while still providing reliable service at the highest level. We have not and will not stop working to ensure that we remain competitive on pricing while excelling in service,” Brower said.

This rate reduction is due to a drop in natural gas prices. This is significant because the burning of natural gas generates approximately 70 percent of the city’s power. Another big upside to this event is that rates are competitive using natural gas, a cleaner fuel, which ensures that Ocala is doing its part to improve the environment.

“We owe this to our customers and community,” Brower stated.

Pete Tesch, president/CEO of the Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Corp. responded enthusiastically to the new rates.

“In addition to the reduction in commercial peak time hours, this rate decrease will significantly help in our attraction and expansion efforts to bring new businesses to the City of Ocala, as well as ease the burden of high energy bills for our existing companies,” Tesch stated. “We applaud the City of Ocala for aggressively addressing this issue to help position our community as a competitive business destination”.

This impact extends to current businesses as well. Brower reinforced this by explaining that commercial (Non-Demand) customers using 1,500 kWh per month will see a savings of $234 per year, while industrial customers using 300KW/120,000 kWh will see savings of nearly $19,000 per year.

In addition, residential customers using 1,200 kWh per month, the average monthly usage, will see a savings of $15.60 a month or $187.20 a year. This rate reduction will have a very positive impact on all Ocala Utility customers and our community in the coming year.

E-ONE and Hall-Mark Fire Apparatus have teamed up to make an impact on the Pink Heals Tour by adding a new member to their growing fleet of pink fire trucks.

The Pink Heals Tour travels across the country with a team of volunteers to support and bring awareness to women battling cancer, and this particular pink fire truck will be presented by E-ONE to the Pink Heals Tour during the Fire-Rescue East Conference in Daytona Beach, FL on January 21st.

For more details, please click on Press Release.

SECO CEO Jim Duncan has announced that the co-op’s member/customers will see a significant drop in the power cost adjustment (PCA) charge on their January electric statements. The PCA charge on member electric statements was $9.40, but will now go down by $3.80 making the new PCA charge $5.60 which is as 40% reduction. The PCA charge also means the overall charge for 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity will drop from $128.05 down to $124.95.

Duncan said, “This is good news for SECO members. The cost of purchased power has gone down and a recent agreement with CSX Railroad has made the transportation of coal to Seminole Electric’s power plants in Palatka, Florida more economical. Consequently, we can lower the PCA charge which will lower the overall cost of electricity for all of our members.”

“The news about the reduced PCA charge follows the return of $3.4 million in capital credits to SECO members in November. Hopefully, all this helps brighten the holiday season for our members and their families,” Duncan concluded.

For those unfamiliar with the PCA charge, it is that portion of your bill which is the difference between what SECO’s base rates cover and the total cost passed on to us by Seminole Electric Cooperative. All of Seminole’s costs of generation and purchased power are part of the PCA charge. It is important to note that SECO receives no revenue from the PCA charge. It is a straight pass through back to Seminole Electric.

SECO serves over 171,000 member/customers and their families in parts of Sumter Marion, Lake, Citrus, Levy, Hernando and Pasco counties.

Senture, LLC is announcing an expansion of their Ocala customer service center in Meadowbrook Commerce Park, creating 101 new jobs in Ocala/Marion County. The firm secured a major contract with a Fortune 500 health insurance company to provide customer support and service for their Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug plans. Senture chose Ocala for the needed expansion over other potential sites in the Tampa Bay, FL area and London, KY where the company also operates.

The 101 new jobs will bring an additional payroll of $3,157,440 and a capital investment of $650,000 - $750,000 into Ocala/Marion County’s local economy. Positions include: 50 licensed insurance agents, 40 non-licensed customer service representatives, six quality assurance staff members, four trainers and one computer support specialist. The combined salaries average $31,261.79 annually.

Senture’s President Chris Deaton is pleased to see the company’s expansion in Ocala, “We have been operating in Ocala since 2006 and found the employees to be a large part of the reason we would like to stay and grow here. We are well aware of the economic climate at this time and are proud to bring much needed new jobs to help stimulate the economy and offer employment opportunities for our citizens. In addition, we are very appreciative of what the EDC, Workforce Connection and CF Corporate Training did to assist with this project. The $56,000 Quick Response Training Grant we received was one of the deciding factors that brought this project to fruition.  With more possibilities in the pipeline, we look forward to continued growth in Ocala.”

EDC President/CEO Pete Tesch echoed his enthusiasm for the project, “This is such good news at a critical time in our community. Senture has been an outstanding corporate citizen, and it is exciting to see them grow. The EDC is gratified to play a role in keeping this excellent employer here and assisting them through the job creation process resulting in more than 100 news jobs.”

Companies interested in expansion and/or job creation, should visit www.ocalaedc.org, or call 352-291-4410.

The EDC was proud to assist Cone Distributing, Inc. with their formal Groundbreaking Ceremony in November. Since the project is ahead of schedule, there was much more to see than dirt!

Owner Doug Cone expressed heartfelt gratitude for the teamwork that has brought this $13.5 million project creating 50 new jobs to fruition, “I want to thank Pete Tesch and the EDC for bringing something like this to us (recovery bond financing). There was a lot of hard work, long hours, and tons of paperwork…but we were able to make this project happen.” Cone also thanked City, County and State dignitaries in the crowd for their assistance with this project.

Tesch acknowledged the project’s significance, “This was an unprecedented arrangement of public and private sectors working together, and is a snapshot of what economic recovery looks like.”

Congratulations are in order for Edwards Construction Services, Inc. They have been selected by The Villages retirement community as Construction Manager for several additions and renovation projects slated for The Villages Charter School.

For more details, download the Press Release.