WastAway receives tax abatement
The Industrial Development Board voiced its approval for two projects with positive potential for the local economy at its meeting yesterday.
The board approved a tax abatement for WastAway, a waste disposal system developed by local company Bouldin Corporation, and approved a TIIPS grant for $250,000 to provide water and sewer service to the county’s industrial park and spec building.
Both projects have been working their way through the system, garnering the required approvals from various state and local governmental bodies.
Phil McMullan, an economic development specialist with TVA, was on hand to offer both monetary and logistical support for the WastAway project, which is to be housed in the former Aquatech building, recently purchased by the Bouldin Corporation.
According to McMullan, TVA will be working with local financial institutions to provide start-up loans WastAway, as well as testing on some of the proposed applications for the finished product.
“From my end we’re moving right along with our loan process,” McMullan said. “We’re encouraged to see this moving forward today. We’re going to do everything we can to help make this project happen from our end too.”
Industrial Development Board member Jeff Golden mentioned the operation, which had originally estimated providing around 125 jobs within the next five years, had upped that figure to around 300 jobs.
“I recommend we go ahead and approve the tax abatement for Bouldin Corporation on the property at Aquatech,” Golden told the board.
The board then passed the measure unanimously.
The $250,000 TIIPS grant to provide utility line additions for Mountain View Industrial Park was pretty much complete. The agreement form, prepared with the assistance of the Upper Cumberland Development Board in Cookeville, had already been signed by newly elected County Executive Kenneth Rogers, and only required the approval of the IDB, along with a commitment from the board to cover an extra $30,000 needed for the project according to a preliminary project cost estimate submitted by the James C. Hailey Company which listed the ultimate cost at $280,000 total.
“We have to send them a letter that the projected cost was $30,000 over the $250,000 grant,” said interim industrial recruiter Joyce Lawson. “So we have to send them a letter stating that we will cover that amount.”
The board then voted to approve both the grant agreement form and the letter drafted by Lawson stating the board would cover the extra $30,000.
Both measures passed unanimously.