Holy Hypereion Batman!

<$BlogMetaData$>January 27th, 2009


Holy Hyperion, Batman!

Okay folks, there are some things happening with the refinery that is like a recurring nightmare. First of all there is a request by Hyperion EC to Clay Rural Water to provide them with service, which will be voted on tomorrow night at 7:30 at the CRWS building on Hwy 19 at Wakonda. The 2nd thing that amazes me is the vote last week by the mayor and city council on a building in town.

Here is a breakdown about Hyperion Resources and Legacy Investments Inc. these facts were obtained from Dun & Bradstreet. Read these facts and tell me that Hyperion is a viable company. These figures are 2 years old, but I can’t imagine they have changed very much.

Hyperion Resources Inc.

5910 N Central Expressway, Dallas, TX 75206 - - 214-750-1522

Privately held, Incorporated in Texas in 1990 (also registered in Louisiana and Michigan)

Chief Executive: Albert D. Huddleston

President: Robert B. Thompson

Info from Dun & Bradstreet:

Annual revenues: $12.3 million

Employees: 60

Parent company: Legacy Investments Inc. 5910 N Central Expressway Dallas, TX 75206

214-750-1522

Incorporated in Texas in 1990

Info from Dun & Bradstreet:

Annual revenues: $16.1 million

Employees: 74

Let’s look at what is happening with Hyperion and Clay Rural Water. At their meeting this Thursday, they are going to vote on whether or not to provide service to Hyperion.

Last spring, Hyperion sent a letter to CRWS requesting service, and expected CRWS to pay for the engineering study and bear the cost of construction. Hyperion would pay them back with monthly installments added to their water bill. I’m not kidding you folks, this is what they proposed; I was there for the presentation. Now this company has guts. Who in their right mind would accept such a proposition? Anyway, CRWS voted to table this until they obtain more information, and that Hyperion would bear the costs. CRWS is not is a position to bear all these costs. Come on now, CRWS had to get a loan just to complete the Wynstone addition and that was in the neighborhood of $800,000 I think. This is getting funnier than a soap opera isn’t it? Okay, now back to this week. Hyperion isn’t going to be present, but they are requesting service. This can’t be a serious offer. I did ask Mr. Merrigan, who is the manager of CRWS if they have asked for a financial report on Hyperion before they consider this request, but as of when I am writing this article, I haven’t had an answer. I hope for the sake of being serious, they have asked for one, but Hyperion hasn’t supplied it yet.

Now let me give you some thoughts to reinforce the idea of why Hyperion is never going to happen. Last summer, the air permit was approved and Hyperion could have started construction the very next day, but they didn’t., instead they released 6000 acres of land they held options on. They still haven’t bought the land for the refinery site. They just paid their last option money. This year is critical because they either have to buy the land or renew their options, which are open to negotiations. By the way, they still have not said that they are coming to Union County. Preston Phillips is on record again saying that the company can be profitable with oil at $60 a barrel. Just last spring it was $90 a barrel. I don’t think they have a clue which way is up. I don’t think Hyperion has enough money to even buy the land, and cannot find investor capital to come up with it either. Valero is the largest refinery in the United States and they just closed a 220,000 barrel per day refinery in Delaware. Practically all the refineries in the United States have cut production to 60-70% of capacity. And Hyperion wants to construct a refinery? This all adds up to a big pipe dream (a little play on words there). It isn’t going to happen folks.

Let’s go back to the mayor and city council vote last week on the property for sale that the council turned down bids on. A church bid 35,000 for the building and was turned down because it is a non-profit entity and wouldn’t have to pay taxes. What a statement for the council to make. Here is a church that brings people to worship and the council says no because they won’t pay any taxes? You’ve got to be kidding me. What makes a town grow? What is one of the most important focal points of a community? A Church! Evidently this church would have been competition for other churches (non taxable) in the town. The other bid that was denied was for Boyer Inc. of Hawarden to buy it for $45,000. Of course this is only $10,000 more than the church offered. The reasoning for denying this bid was because the mayor said that Hyperion is coming and might want to put an office there, so they should wait and see what happens. . I was always told that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or did the council deny the bid because Boyer is competition to Higman Sand and Gravel? Back to the quote from the mayor that Hyperion will begin construction soon and he wants Akron to be in position to bid. That means that Akron might do like Elk Point; They offered to sell the rights to the auditorium in EP to Hyperion for $1 for a year. They didn’t take the offer. If you will remember I have been writing this column for over two years and have been saying for over 2 years that this will never happen. Hyperion was originally going to begin construction in 2009, then it was 2010 and now it is the third quarter of 2011. How long is Akron going to wait for the savior to come? I don’t know what Boyer intends to do with the building, but if it is a business, they employ people and they pay taxes. Duh! Okay that is enough about slamming the mayor and the council, it is like - - poop in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first.

What does it take for people to take a dose of reality?