KROS NEWS

(Clinto) -- Last week three businesses announced plans for Clinton operations and the council has tentatively approved the first step of a package of incentives for the businesses.

Various incentives for a new and an expanding business were approved in the committee of the whole session by the Clinton City Council.

Last week the firm Rail One announced plans for a new plant at the Industrial Rail Park with 60 direct and 40 indirect jobs. Clinton Regional Development Corporation representative Karen Mallinger said the firm has agreed to pay above the average county wage of about 15-dollars*and*50 cents to be eligible for various programs.

At last night’s meeting-City Finance Director and Interim City Administrator Jessica Kinser said a resolution of support is the first step with other more specific steps required as the process continues. She said that would provide confidence for the company and confidence for the state in providing incentive's at their level.

Kinser said the biggest piece is a rebate of property taxes in a ‘tax increment plan’ that would be a maximum of 2-million dollars over a maximum of ten years. The city would build an access road to the railport and the city would support an enterprise zone application for the site. There would also be other incentives sought at the state level and the total package could be over 4-million dollars.

The firms would be making an 20-million dollar capital investment in the project that produces concrete railroad ties.

Mallinger told the council it is estimated the additional jobs would have an economic impact in the area of 15-million dollars.

Kinser says there will be a tight timeline and it may require some special meetings of the council. The council approved the resolution of support.

The council also approved hiring an outside legal counsel to negotiate the sale of the land to help that process be completed. John Frey was approved as the attorney to handle that portion of the process. He said the charge would be 160-dollars an hour, but could not estimate how many hours may be needed.

A related firm -the Utah based Nevada Railroad Materials firm- also announced development at the site with 30 jobs is not seeking incentives at this time. The firm recycles old wooden railroad ties and supplies train cars to Rail-One.

Data Dimensions also announced re-locating their Clinton operations from a facility on Manufacturing Drive to a new building at the Lyons Tech Park and add 130 new jobs. That project was also part of a discussion for incentives at the meeting. The firm is asking for support for Enterprise Zone benefits and would include about one-point-nine dollars in property tax abatements on the new building.

That firm would make a capital investment of just over six-million dollars. The council approved the resolution to support the Data Dimension incentives

Written 3/13/2013 by Dave Vickers - KROS News

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