Judge: Economic progress continues across the county
In spite of all the bad news about the virus, economic progress has continued in the county. Our new businesses are making progress and our old businesses are still here as well. Each of us can do our part by continuing to support all of our local businesses.
Bitman is up and running and is expanding. It currently has in excess of 50 employees (including contract) and may hire more in the future. It is in the process of adding a new line (G) to its operation and plans are underway to add three additional lines. The price of a Bitcoin is now about $8,600, which makes the mining operation profitable.
Whinstone is growing in leaps and bounds. It recently started construction on a third building to house its ant miners. The buildings are about 100 feet wide and about 1,000 feet long and each houses thousands of ant miners. The first set of ant miners will go on line later in May. However, this is not just a Bitcoin miner, but rather a large data center which will be used by various companies to store large quantities of digital information. Whinstone is hiring and so are some of the contractors, such as Perry & Perry. Contact the Texas Workforce Solutions in Rockdale at (512) 446 6440 if you are looking for work.
The solar projects in the county are still alive and well. The Project Athena (Saturn) solar farm has been sold to a group in New Mexico. Construction on the project will begin this week. This is a 12-acre project and the electricity has been sold to Bartlett electric. The Ben Milam solar project consists of three large separate sites for solar, which total about 5,000 acres in the northern part of the county. This is a huge project, which has been in the making for some time. The entire project may be sold later this week and hopefully construction could begin as early as 2021.
Many of our restaurants are hanging in there and coming back as well. For example, the Central Avenue Bistro plans to re-open in early June with drive through and in house dining. Brettt’s BBQ has continued to do well with a drive through and outside dining. Thorndale Meat Market has continued to do well with barbecue, other cooked foods and groceries. Dutch Town Deli and Circle S in Cameron have remained open and are doing a robust carry out business.
Recently the Milam County Commissioners Court took historic first time action to advertise for support of our local businesses. We bought ads in the local papers and radio stations asking every citizen of the county to support our local businesses by buying and advertising locally. Remember we have just about anything that you need in the county at competitive prices, so buy it here and buy it right!