All systems are go for the construction of a coking facility and co-generation power plant on the East Toledo-Oregon border, pending the required environmental approval.

Monday, a private entity based in northwest Ohio, which officials would not name, lent FDS Coke Plant LLC $191,000 so the company could make a payment to Midwest Independent System Operator Inc. that was required to keep the project active.

"This loan will allow us to go into the final planning phase," said Lance Traves, FDS project manager and environmental consultant.

In addition to being necessary for the project's future, the loan was intended as a strong statement to governmental officials in Columbus that Lucas County needs jobs and economic development to survive in the 21st century, local officials said.

Now, Mr. Traves said, the only thing stopping FDS from breaking ground in the immediate future is a pending ruling from the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission on several outstanding permit issues.

Had the payment not been made to Midwest yesterday, even if the environmental review appeals commission had ruled in FDS' favor today, the project could not go ahead until at least November, he said.

The worst thing for the project would have been for Midwest not to have been paid and for the environmental review board to vote in FDS' favor a few weeks from now, said Ben Konop, Lucas County commissioner and mayoral hopeful who worked to arrange the loan with Commis-sioner Pete Gerken and Matt Sapara, the director of development for the port authority.

The unnamed private lender was found after county commissioners deferred a vote on a proposal last week to offer FDS a six-month, $200,000 county loan that could be used to pay Midwest.

At the time, Mr. Konop said he withdrew the proposal from the meeting's agenda after receiving an advisory opinion from the county's economic development department.

Opposing the project are the Sierra Club and residents of Harbor View, a village less than a mile west of the Toledo-Oregon line.

The residents say they are concerned that their downwind community of 50 households would be on the receiving end of the plant's coal dust, particulates, and gaseous emissions.

"Does the country need this type of manufacturing facility? Absolutely," said Dennis Szych, who has lived in Harbor View for 11 years. "But does it need to be made near people? There were other places suited for this facility."

He said he is "by no means a tree-hugger" and wondered why the company had not tried to buy out the residents of Harbor View. "For all the homes out here, I don't think they would have spent $10 [million] to $15 million," Mr. Szych said.

If the environmental appeals commission rules in FDS' favor, the facility will be built on a 51-acre tract owned by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority along Maumee Bay.

It has been five years since the original permit for the coking portion was issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Joe Vardon, assistant to Mr. Konop, said that although both the coke plant and cogeneration facility could be built in another state or in another country, FDS is committed to exhausting "every resource to remain in Toledo.

Mr. Traves said the current location is "really ideal."

He cited its proximity to Great Lakes shipping, railroads, and northwest Ohio's skilled work force.

Furthermore, the project's investors have made multimillion-dollar commitments to the location, he said.

The consortium that put the $800 million project together has projected it will generate 150 jobs with average yearly pay of $45,000, along with 1,500 to 2,000 temporary construction jobs.

Oregon Mayor Marge Brown said the coke plant is one of two important issues she has taken up with the governor, with the other being the city of Oregon's stimulus funds.

"The city of Oregon got over $3 million of stimulus," she said. "And I said to the governor, we have an $800 million project that we don't need stimulus money for, if we could just get [the environmental board] going."

FDS is hoping to receive news of the pending appeals by mid-September.