FREDERICKTOWN — Fredericktown Village Council moved in an emergency resolution Thursday to continue tax exemptions for a local equipment supplier.
Council approved a resolution maintaining the Enterprise Zone abatement for Unique Metal Designs, Inc, during a 5 p.m. special meeting. The Enterprise Zone Program provides property tax exemptions to businesses making investments in Ohio.
None of the council members present Thursday knew the dollar amount of the abetment. Village administrator Bruce Snell said the abetment has been in place for 13 years and must be renewed annually.
“It’s a 100% abatement on their improvement, so as they grow their building, add equipment, add employees, they don’t pay any taxes on that improvement right now,” Snell said.
Council suspended the three readings and approved the resolution as an emergency to comply with time constraints in Ohio Revised Code, Section 5709.85(E), under which the council must act on — meaning accept, reject or modify — the recommendations given from a tax incentive review council within 60 days of receipt.
Knox County’s tax incentive review council reviews all of the village’s agreements granting tax exemptions for Enterprise Zones, Community Reinvestment Areas (areas of land in which property owners can receive tax incentives for investing in real property improvements) and Tax Increment Financing Property (allowing the increase in assessed value of an improvement to real property to be exempt from real property taxation).
Knox County’s Area Development Foundation also collects performance data from each exempted economic development project annually and reports the data to the Ohio Department of Development.
Annual renewal of abatements is based on job and investment performance data, in this case data reported for the year ending Dec. 31, 2020.
Unique Metal Designs met their performance obligations but did not meet their performance goals, Snell said. Snell said the company’s inability to meet the goals was due to retention and hiring difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The only other item of discussion Thursday involved the High Street water tower rehab project, through which the village intends to make safety improvements to the approximately 100-year-old tower.
Council voted to get bid specifications for the project, but not to go to bid.
“If we have a project ready to put out to bid right now, it would give us the best chance of getting the funding,” Snell said, explaining that this recommendation comes after conversations with other peers in villages throughout the county.
Snell said he expects the bid specs to cost $5,000, but he is awaiting a quote from Dixon, the engineering and inspection services firm that did the tower inspection five years ago.
“The good thing about Dixon is they are not a design-build firm,” council member Rick Lanuzza said. “They are only going to do the bid specs, therefore they have no skin in the game. They’re going to give us a true report.”
Council intends for the project to be funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and House Bill 168. If or when the village is awarded the funding, they will go to bid with the project, which Snell said he anticipates would be in 2022.
“But, these are uncharted times with all this funding,” Snell said.
Council member Rick Lanuzza served as acting-mayor during Thursday’s meeting. Mayor Jerry Day and council member Bill Van Nostrand did not attend the meeting.
