AEDC preparing to submit steel plant package

— The Arkansas Economic Development Commission says it is finishing a package of information on the proposed $1.1 billion Big River Steel LLC mill that legislators will be able to use in deciding whether to help fund the project.

Commission spokesman Joe Holmes said staff members are putting the final touches on the package. Legislators plan to hire a consultant to review the proposal.

The project would be the first under a measure that allows the Legislature to approve borrowing to fund a big economic project. Mill backers want the state to borrow $125 million and give $75 million of it to help build the facility.

The developers say the mill will employ more than 500 people and that it will take 2,000 construction workers to build the factory in Osceola.

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