Former sheriff seeks proof of financing for trash-to-ethanol plant

The former Lake County sheriff is seeking answers regarding the absent financing for a proposed south county trash-to-ethanol plant.

And the chief political champion of the plan, Lake County Commissioner Gerry Scheub, said he wants the answer as much as anyone.

Former Sheriff Roy Dominguez, an outspoken critic of the process to bring the plant to Lake County, filed a Freedom of Information Act request Monday with the Lake County Solid Waste Management District.

Dominguez has said he plans to run against Scheub in the May primary for the commissioner's seat.

The request seeks any and all correspondence that may have occurred between the waste district and Hugo Cadena, the purported manager of a Las Vegas-based hedge fund.

The waste district contracted with Evansville-based Powers Energy of America three years ago to build a plant in Schneider that would consolidate the county's trash collections and transform its carbon-based trash into the fuel alternative ethanol.

The proposed private plant has yet to secure any construction funds, permits or land upon which to build the facility. But waste district board members did receive a promise from Cadena in November that his hedge fund would finance the plant.

Some county officials have expressed skepticism that the plant will secure any financing, and Dominguez said his information request seeks proof of any available money.

Scheub, who presides over the solid waste district board and has championed the trash-to-ethanol plan, said the district should give Dominguez any of the requested information if it is available.

"I'm more frustrated than anyone about this," Scheub said, referring to a lack of secured financing for the plant. "But I still believe in it (trash-to-ethanol).

"And at least I tried. I'm not going to stop trying."

Scheub said if the 3-year-old Powers contract falls through, he is prepared to seek other companies that could consolidate the county's trash - at a savings to taxpayers - without sending it to a landfill.

He said other possible vendors could use the trash to produce electricity or other commodities.