Tagged: LG Chem

Officials from Allegan County confirm three companies have put tax liens on LG Chem’s Holland plant. Andy J. Egan Company’s lien is worth $142,199.73,Circuit Electric’s is worth $107,712.15 and Johnson Controls’ $14,600. They say two other liens from 2011 were paid off.

The plant cost roughly $300 million dollars to build. Federal stimulus money paid for half that cost. Last week the Department of Energy’s Inspector General released a report that concluded the company wasted some of that money. The company paid back more than eight-hundred-thousand dollars.

Construction is underway on a huge plant in Holland that will eventually produce hundreds of thousands of battery packs for electric vehicles, including the Chevy Volt. Under a new agreement signed this week, Grand Rapids Community College will help train potential employees for the company, LG Chem.

Mary Hofstra is with GRCC. She helped design this and similar programs at the college.

 “Our goal as a school is to be working with these new battery facilities and to design the curriculum needed to support that industry. So that people can come here, get their college certificate, one year certificate. Maybe it’s going to be a job training model where someone comes for a 20 week period of time to learn the basics to get into that field. It’s going to bring a lot of opportunity beyond just the few that are coming to area.”

Under the agreement, the college will train more than 3,000 employees the company expects to hire over the next two decades. LG Chem will pay for their employees’ training through payroll taxes.