Construction for the Vidalia rubber plant is scheduled to begin next month.

On Dec. 21, City Attorney Jack McLemore and Mayor Hyram Copeland signed the final paperwork from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

McLemore said the completion of the paperwork allows the city to receive a $700,000 grant from DEQ to pay for construction of Louisiana Elastomer L.L.C., or LAEL.

The plant will also be paid for with $1.5 million coming from a private investor, a $6.5 million construction loan from Biz Capital and a $639,000 Community Development Block Grant.

In August, the city donated 25 acres in the industrial park to LAEL for the construction of the plant.

The company plans to recycle old rubber from tires, making them a pellet or sheet form.

The recycled rubber can then be used to make other products like car bumpers, shoes and truck bed liners.

The plant will bring about 35 new jobs after opening and 65 after the first year.

Eventually, the plant will create about 130 new jobs, but Concordia Parish Economic Development Director Teresa Dennis said the plant’s opening would mean further economic development for the parish.

“(The plant’s opening) is going to help me recruit new and different industry that use the rubber that LAEL recycles,” Dennis said.