MOUNT VERNON — Dan Fox of North Jefferson Street spoke to Mount Vernon City Council on Monday night about the noise from Airco on Greenwood Avenue.
According to Fox, the noise starts at 6 a.m. and continues through 6 p.m. He noted he is glad Airco is here and that the city needs the business, but he asked the council to address the noise.
“I feel it in my house, this noise,” he told council members. “It has interrupted our little section of neighborhood.”
City Law Director Rob Broeren said city noise ordinances apply to residential areas. Airco is in Heartland Commerce Park, which is zoned industrial.
The Knox County Land Bank manages HCP. Land bank president Jeff Gottke agreed with Fox about the noise but said that “unscientifically,” Airco is under the 85-decibel level set by the state.
He said some of the noise stems from an air compressor on a trailer. Airco has said it will move the trailer to the other side of its building. If that does not reduce the noise enough, the company said it could enclose the compressor.
Additionally, Gottke said HCP’s Property Owners Association could perhaps adjust its rules to help counteract the noise.
Glenn Shugart, operations and quality control director for Airco, told Knox Pages late Tuesday afternoon that the company is in the process of moving the air compressor.
“It should be done by Friday, hopefully,” he said.
Shugart said that much of the noise is coming from inside the building. Airco ordered a new door, which workers are installing.
New TIF district
Council members approved on second reading legislation creating a 30-year Tax Increment Financing district on Upper Gilchrist Road.
The TIF covers the Rockford (The Retreat at Mount Vernon) and Lemmon developments, plus 12 acres fronting on Coshocton Road.
TIFs only apply to commercial properties.
“TIFs don’t abate taxes, they redirect the [taxes on] improved value into a fund that’s controlled by the city,” Gottke, president of the Area Development Foundation, explained.
“So then that fund can be used for public improvements.”
Public improvements include roads, storm water, and water/wastewater lines within the TIF area. The Upper Gilchrist Road TIF can only cover improvements within the city limits.
The city limit on Upper Gilchrist is just north of the Schlabach development.
The Rockford development received a 15-year tax abatement. Abatements take priority over TIFs, so the Upper Gilchrist Road TIF would kick in for years 16-30.
Rockford estimates the city will collect around $8 million in the TIF fund for years 16-30.
However, the TIF kicks in for Lemmon’s development in Year 1.
Under a TIF, the schools are made whole. In other words, the city will use TIF money and pay Mount Vernon City Schools and the Knox County Career Center the amount they would have received if the TIF had not existed.
In addition to establishing the TIF district, council members passed legislation setting up a specific fund (TIF-Upper Gilchrist Road Fund) to hold the money collected through the TIF.
Legislative action
Council members took the following actions in their legislative session:
•Gave first reading to legislation accepting the amounts the Budget Commission determined the levies will generate: 2.6-mill General Fund levy, $1,010,600; and .30-mill each police and fire levies, $117,000 each
•Suspended the three readings and approved the appointment of Emil Diener to the Shade Tree and Beautification Commission
•Approved on the first reading paying bills, fund transfers, and supplemental appropriations
•Suspended the three readings and accepted the terms of the national opioid settlement with the Kroger Co.
•After discussing it in an executive session earlier in the evening, approved an agreement with the Mount Vernon Firefighters and Paramedics, IAFF Local 3712, regarding wages and benefits
