Illinois County Seeks Boost from Wood River Expansion
by Laura Griffith, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
October 08, 2007
Jersey County, Ill., is taking a proactive step in getting its share of benefits from the upcoming expansion project at the ConocoPhillips Wood River Refinery.
A newly constructed Web site aimed at a generation of 20- and 30-somethings will seek to draw construction workers who are brought in from outside the region to work on the project to make Jersey County their new home.
Although the construction jobs, more than 1,500 of them, will be temporary, the project is expected to last five years. It also is expected to create 100 full-time jobs.
Brent Thompson, director of the Jersey County Business Association, said ConocoPhillips is working on a one-stop Web site to attract construction workers and give them information about the project. The Jersey County relocator site, www.welcome.jcba.us, will be linked to it, he said.
"We hope to encourage those construction people to live here while they work on that five-year project," Thompson said.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
