Council agrees to install water, sewer

It wasn’t easy. But hey, they met.

All Portland City Council members attended the city’s first virtual meeting Monday through Zoom, an online video chat application that has become popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the council’s first meeting since Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s stay-at-home order went into effect.

Council voted to install sewage and water lines to new CrownPointe Communities condos. It also approved one tax abatement request while sending another to the tax abatement advisory committee.

Yorktown-based CrownPointe is expanding its senior-living community at 745 Patriot Drive, Portland — on the north side of Votaw Street between IU Health Jay and Walmart — said Jay County Development Corporation’s Travis Richards.

The expansion was detailed in a PowerPoint presentation delivered over Zoom, which was interrupted on Richards’ end because of a weak internet connection.

That was the biggest technological hiccup during the meeting outside of the occasional echo and interrupting background noise from members not muting their microphones when they weren’t speaking. Council even recited the Pledge of Allegiance as it usually does at the beginning of their traditional in-person meetings.

Council member Don Gillespie was the lone member to call into the meeting through his phone. The rest were on screen for the video call, though clerk-treasurer Lori Phillips and council member Mike Aker shared a screen.

Matt Goldsworthy, one of the council’s youngest members, assisted his peers with connecting to the virtual meeting.

Prior to losing connection, Richards said CrownPointe, which currently operates 22 condos, owns land north of its current site big enough to add 40 more units.

As a member of the city’s housing task force, he recommended that Portland install water and sewage lines to help ensure CrownPointe builds as many condos as possible. The cost of extending the sewer and water lines is estimated at $21,200.

Usually, the city requires developers to pay for water and sewage lines but according to Portland ordinance, council can bypass this if there is a proven economic benefit for the city.

Richards said a potential benefit is proven by the money Portland makes from tax revenue. He estimated the city would receive more than $170,000 in tax revenue over the first 10 years of the project.

After installation, the city is expected to receive around $15,600 in tap fees from the condos in addition to property taxes.

Council also voted to take ownership of any streets CrownPointe builds during the project, though the company will pay to install the new streets.

Council members, on the recommendation of the city’s tax abatement advisory committee, approved an abatement for Tyson Foods, 1355 W. Tyson Road, for the replacement of part of a manufacturing line lost during a November fire. The cost to install the new line is estimated at $6 million, with the abatement slated to save Tyson about $214,466 in taxes over the five-year span.

They also forwarded a request for a five-year tax abatement for Priority Plastics to the city’s tax abatement advisory committee. The company is requesting an abatement on $4.7 million in new plastic container manufacturing and other equipment. The project is expected to create four new jobs, and the abatement would save the company an estimated $168,613.

Priority Plastics is exploring the idea of expanding its Portland facility at 500 Industrial Park Drive, plant manager Jim Craig said. A tax abatement would go a long way in making sure the company invests potentially millions of dollars into the local plant, he added.

“I believe it’s a cascading benefit to the city of Portland,” Craig said, who added that improvements would include infrastructure and manufacturing improvements.

In other business council members Michele Brewster, Kent McClung, Janet Powers, Dave Golden, Aker, Gillespie and Goldsworthy:

•Approved an ordinance allowing Phillips to make payments on behalf of the city without council’s approval in the event of an emergency. The State Board of Accounts recommended all clerk-treasurers in Indiana be allowed to do this during the coronavirus pandemic.

•Heard from Golden that recycling bags are available at city hall inside its back entrance and can be picked up by buzzing in at the rear police department door.

•Heard from Mayor John Boggs that masks have been ordered for city employees.