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Water Bottling Plant With 20 Employees Shuts Down Its Operation

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 21:00 CST

By Tim Mitchell, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Jan. 12--PAXTON -- The ClearSource water bottling plant in Paxton shut down at the end of business Tuesday.

Eric Tjarks, maintenance supervisor for the plant, said its 20 employees were informed of the closure that day. Tjarks said three workers will remain a few days to distribute inventory and tear down equipment.

ClearSource, originally called Micropack, opened its 40,000-square-foot plant in May 2002.

The company got its water from the Mahomet-Teays Aquifer and used an 11-step "double reverse osmosis" process to produce purified drinking water for single-serve bottles. The company produced water for several private labels, including Arctic Mist, Viva and Clearly American, and sold it to wholesalers.

Paxton Mayor Bill Ingold said he is sorry to see the plant close. "Obviously this will have an impact for the city and for our citizens," he said this morning.

The closing came a day after the Paxton City Council delayed a decision on what to do about two loans to the company.

In 2002, Micropack arranged for loans of $550,000 and $10,000 at 3 percent interest from the state through the city to pay for machinery and equipment. The company also borrowed $12 million from Fifth Third Bank.

ClearSource asked the city to subordinate the priority of its loans to the interest of Fifth Third Bank. Ingold said the city's choices included: asking ClearSource to pay off its loans from the city; agreeing to allow Fifth Third Bank to have priority on proceeds from the sale of equipment; or affirming original loan agreement. He said the council will meet on the issue Jan. 30. ClearSource has plants in five other locations: Randolph, Vt.; Palmerton, Pa.; Zephyrhills, Fla.; Hot Springs, Ark., and Georgetown, Texas.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

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FITB,

Source: The News-Gazette

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