A company that owns a landfill gas processing facility at Barrow County’s Oak Grove Sanitary Landfill has filed bankruptcy in Louisiana.
By filing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition April 30, Winder Renewable Methane LLC avoided an advertised May 4 foreclosure sale.
The company is developing a financial reorganization plan and continues to own and to operate the landfill gas facility, according to its New Orleans attorney Douglas Draper.
“Everything is functioning as if the bankruptcy was not filed,” he said.
In addition to filing the written plan, the judge has ordered the company to file monthly financial information about ongoing operations.
Winder Renewable’s bankruptcy petition lists assets of more than $10 million and liabilities of up to $10 million.
The largest creditor is ACF Winder LLC, which was incorporated in Georgia one day before the bankruptcy petition was filed in New Orleans. Its interest is secured by the $9.5 million processing facility. ACF Winder is affiliated with Archer Capital Management in New York.
In addition to that secured debt, there are municipalities and companies in nine states with unpaid obligations.
The biggest creditor with unsecured debt is ET Environmental Corp. of Ohio, which built the gas-processing facility and is still owed $381,448.
Georgia creditors with unsecured claims as of April 30 included the City of Winder, owed $33,427.26 for water and natural gas service; Jackson EMC, owed $32,483 for electric service; the City of Buford, $9,400; landfill owner Republic Services of Georgia LP, $55,319; Synergy Refrigeration Inc. of Kennesaw, $138,602; Fusion Environmental Corp. of Atlanta, $13,653; Golder Associates Inc. of Atlanta, $7,500; Mustang Engineering L.P. of Alpharetta, $5,391; and Industrial Hydro-Blast of Macon, $4,658.
Winder’s city government could have faced a much more significant financial impact of the bankruptcy, however.
Late city administrator Bob Beck said soon after the gas-conversion facility began operating that city officials had considered financing the project, but ran into problems with the government financing a private, for-profit venture. As a result, he said, the city didn’t invest a dime.
Not on the list of creditors is Barrow County, which is owed more than $122,847 in overdue 2009 taxes, penalty and interest on the facility. Winder Methane LLC also owes the county $4,661 in overdue taxes on the 2.23 acres on which the facility was built.
The larger tax liability is owed by Renewable Solutions Group LLC, which was incorporated six years ago in Pennsylvania by David R. Wentworth and has been the company publicly identified as the developer of the gas-processing facility.
However, bankruptcy court documents show that Winder Methane LLC is an affiliate of Worthmore Renewable Solutions LLC, which was incorporated in Delaware and also has filed bankruptcy in Louisiana. The bankruptcies of both companies, in fact, are being jointly administered.
Neither of those two corporations is registered with the state to do business in Louisiana, though the addresses listed on their bankruptcy petitions are the same as those of two other Worthmore corporations in New Orleans – Worthmore Capital LLC and Worthmore Corners LLC.
A court document list as managers of Worthmore Renewable Solutions LLC attorneys M. Walker Baus and Marc M. Livaudais of New Orleans; Renewable Solutions Group founder David R. Wentworth of Pittsburgh; Martin L. Pomerantz, Renewable Solution’s executive vice president of technology & engineering; and M. William Mathes.
Barrow County Tax Commissioner Melinda Williams said Tuesday that she has not been notified of the bankruptcy of Winder Methane LLC.
“Bankruptcy does not make taxes go away,” she said. “It only prolongs collections.”
The county will not be able to file any tax liens or judgments against the company as long as it is under bankruptcy protection, she said.
But those collection actions may take place after the bankruptcy case ends.
