The leaders of a company who want to bring an industrial hemp business to Rock-dale and Milam County visited Monday and promise activity by fall.
Jerry Walters II, chief executive officer of Oppidian, and Timmie Lane, co-founder, are planning an effort they promise will turn the Rockdale area into the state’s hemp hub.
“We’re looking at bringing 45 to 50 jobs, Walters said. “And we plan to get started after Labor Day.”
NOT POT—“We have a lot of education to do,” Walters said. “The biggest initial task will be to emphasize hemp is not marijuana and that it is legal.”
Walters noted that while both are derived from strains of the cannabis plant, industrial hemp does not provide a “high.”
While Oppidian’s stated goal is to develop pharmaceutical formulated products derived from hemp, Walters says hemp has “a multitude of other uses that includes clothing.”
We will, with the assistance of Texas A&M to teach farmers how to grow this new crop with which they won’t be familiar,” he said.
Oppidian envisions land-lease agreements. “They won’t need crop insurance, We will provide that,” Walters said.
HEADQUARTERS—
Walters said the company intends to build a hub in, or near Rockdale, that would serve as a manufacturing plant for the hemp crops.
“We are looking at two sites,” he said. “One is in the Rockdale Industrial Park and one is northwest of town off FM 487 near Valhalla Farms.”
Oppidian has met with the MDD and also wants to involve the City of Rockdale and Milam County commissioners. Walters told The Reporter if the company selects the rural site it will ask to be annexed into the Rockdale city limits.
Walters said the company plans to be visible in, and support the Rock-dale community through its non-profit works.
“We want to restore the Aycock Center, provide for some parks,” he said.
Walters said Oppidian will hire local workers in the construction phase.
IMPACT—Why Rock-dale?
Walters said the company can bring a hub to a town like Rockdale more cheaply than a metropolitan area like Houston but that’s not the prime reason Rockdale has been chosen.
“We can have so much more of a positive impact in a place like Rockdale,” he said. “We’re not Alcoa, but 45 to 50 jobs is going to have an impact.”
Walters heard about Rock-dale from a friend who owns land nearby.
“This is going to be the hub with all kind of possibilities in research and development, biofuel technology and other areas,” he said.
Walters left a financial job on Wall Street to pursue the hemp venture. “This just made so much sense from a business standpoint as a new, emerging industry,” he said.
Industrial hemp is about as new an industry as exists in Texas.
Last session the Texas Legislature passed a bill legalizing the growing of industrial hemp and Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on June 10.
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