July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Red Gold to expand warehouse (10/14/04)
JC council grants 10-year abatement on $2 million project
A major processor of tomato products is set to make a serious investment in a warehouse site in Jay County.
Red Gold, an Elwood-based company which also has a large processing plant in Geneva, plans an $2 million addition to warehouse space it owns located on county road 200 West, just north of the Meshberger Bros. stone quarry west of Portland
The company, which is currently using the site for storage, was granted a 10-year tax abatement Wednesday by the Jay County Council for the improvements.
Robert B. Savage, director of risk management for Red Gold, told council members the site will be used to offload and store incoming supplies — such as tomato paste — that will then be trucked to Geneva.
“The rail is the important issue ... we don’t have rail access at Geneva,” Savage said. “With the cost of (trucking) going up ... it’s becoming more and more important to utilize rail.”
Savage said this morning that the new warehouse space and a covered rail siding will expand the amount of raw product shipped in and the amount of finished product shipped out by rail by the company.
Savage said the start date for the project has not been determined, but construction should be completed by early summer of 2005.
The expansion, which will connect several currently separate buildings, will include new construction totaling approximately 50,000-square feet. The project will create two to six new jobs. The existing facility consists of four or five buildings totaling approximately 35,000-square feet
“That’s a significant investment in Jay County,” council member Andy Schemenaur said.
The abatement granted by the council means the additional property taxes due on the new construction will be phased-in over a 10-year period on an increasing basis.
Council members Jack Houck, Marilyn Coleman, Mark Barnett, Todd Wickey, George Meehan and Schemenaur also granted two other abatements Wednesday — including a five-year abatement to a rural Portland food processing company.
H&B Conditioning LLC, a processor of specialty food products such as corn nuts, asked and received an abatement on a new $168,000 grain sorting machine.
Company owner/president Ramon Loucks said the machine checks each kernel of corn or soybean with infrared light, and shoots imperfect grain from the line with a burst of air.
“It’s world-class technology ... top-of-the-line,” said Loucks.
The company is operating in a former agricultural building east of Portland.
Also granted was a five-year abatement on $93,000 for a vertical milling machine, a computer and related software by Cross Road Precision Tool Inc., 7747 East 800 South, Union City (in Jay County).
Council members also approved three additional appropriations to the 2004 budget — $10,000 to jail utilities; $3,500 to circuit court petit jury; and $702.40 to furniture and fixtures from the clerk’s perpetuation fund.
The jail and court money was from the county general fund, while the clerk perpetuation fund is generated by a $2 fee imposed on each court case filed in the clerk’s office.
The jail utilities and circuit court jury funds were each expected to run out before the end of the year.
County clerk Jane Ann Runyon used the $702.40 to purchase new darkening blinds for the microfilm room.
In other business Wednesday, council members:
•Discussed a letter received by Houck from a county resident asking why horse-drawn buggies were not subject to the county’s wheel tax.
The writer of the letter, whom Houck did not name, said she felt it was unfair that motor vehicles and trailers were assessed the wheel tax but that buggies were not.
All buggies, used mostly by the county’s Amish population, must pay a county registration fee of $25. Those registrations, which generate about $5,000 a year, go into the highway department’s budget.
Passenger vehicles pay a wheel tax based on a percentage of the excise tax due, while trailers and other types of vehicles are charged a flat $40 fee.
Members of the council took no action, but asked their attorney, George Lopez, to check into whether the wheel tax could be imposed on buggies.
•Approved three transfer within the budget of Jay County Commissioners. The transfers to a copy supplies line item were $218.95 from office supplies, $254 from dues and subscriptions and $916.50 from change of venue. The funds will pay for a large amount of copy paper that was recently ordered.[[In-content Ad]]
Red Gold, an Elwood-based company which also has a large processing plant in Geneva, plans an $2 million addition to warehouse space it owns located on county road 200 West, just north of the Meshberger Bros. stone quarry west of Portland
The company, which is currently using the site for storage, was granted a 10-year tax abatement Wednesday by the Jay County Council for the improvements.
Robert B. Savage, director of risk management for Red Gold, told council members the site will be used to offload and store incoming supplies — such as tomato paste — that will then be trucked to Geneva.
“The rail is the important issue ... we don’t have rail access at Geneva,” Savage said. “With the cost of (trucking) going up ... it’s becoming more and more important to utilize rail.”
Savage said this morning that the new warehouse space and a covered rail siding will expand the amount of raw product shipped in and the amount of finished product shipped out by rail by the company.
Savage said the start date for the project has not been determined, but construction should be completed by early summer of 2005.
The expansion, which will connect several currently separate buildings, will include new construction totaling approximately 50,000-square feet. The project will create two to six new jobs. The existing facility consists of four or five buildings totaling approximately 35,000-square feet
“That’s a significant investment in Jay County,” council member Andy Schemenaur said.
The abatement granted by the council means the additional property taxes due on the new construction will be phased-in over a 10-year period on an increasing basis.
Council members Jack Houck, Marilyn Coleman, Mark Barnett, Todd Wickey, George Meehan and Schemenaur also granted two other abatements Wednesday — including a five-year abatement to a rural Portland food processing company.
H&B Conditioning LLC, a processor of specialty food products such as corn nuts, asked and received an abatement on a new $168,000 grain sorting machine.
Company owner/president Ramon Loucks said the machine checks each kernel of corn or soybean with infrared light, and shoots imperfect grain from the line with a burst of air.
“It’s world-class technology ... top-of-the-line,” said Loucks.
The company is operating in a former agricultural building east of Portland.
Also granted was a five-year abatement on $93,000 for a vertical milling machine, a computer and related software by Cross Road Precision Tool Inc., 7747 East 800 South, Union City (in Jay County).
Council members also approved three additional appropriations to the 2004 budget — $10,000 to jail utilities; $3,500 to circuit court petit jury; and $702.40 to furniture and fixtures from the clerk’s perpetuation fund.
The jail and court money was from the county general fund, while the clerk perpetuation fund is generated by a $2 fee imposed on each court case filed in the clerk’s office.
The jail utilities and circuit court jury funds were each expected to run out before the end of the year.
County clerk Jane Ann Runyon used the $702.40 to purchase new darkening blinds for the microfilm room.
In other business Wednesday, council members:
•Discussed a letter received by Houck from a county resident asking why horse-drawn buggies were not subject to the county’s wheel tax.
The writer of the letter, whom Houck did not name, said she felt it was unfair that motor vehicles and trailers were assessed the wheel tax but that buggies were not.
All buggies, used mostly by the county’s Amish population, must pay a county registration fee of $25. Those registrations, which generate about $5,000 a year, go into the highway department’s budget.
Passenger vehicles pay a wheel tax based on a percentage of the excise tax due, while trailers and other types of vehicles are charged a flat $40 fee.
Members of the council took no action, but asked their attorney, George Lopez, to check into whether the wheel tax could be imposed on buggies.
•Approved three transfer within the budget of Jay County Commissioners. The transfers to a copy supplies line item were $218.95 from office supplies, $254 from dues and subscriptions and $916.50 from change of venue. The funds will pay for a large amount of copy paper that was recently ordered.[[In-content Ad]]
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