Councilwomen Kim Brown and Sharon Porter were out Thursday evening.
HANCEVILLE – At its regular meeting Thursday evening, the Hanceville City Council voted to allow incoming automotive instrument and gauge manufacturer Met-South a tax abatement expected to total approximately $400,000. Stanley Kennedy of the Cullman Economic Development Agency advised the council, and presented the paperwork that would bring the abatement to fruition.
Mayor Kenneth Nail said, “All these companies that come get tax abatements; that’s just the way it is. If we don’t give it to them, the next town down the road will.”
Met-South, which will build a new facility and hopes to relocate from Birmingham later this year, currently employs seven workers, but plans to expand as it becomes able to take on more projects with a ready supply of skilled workers from the Applied Technologies program at Wallace State.
See our story on Met-South at http://cullmansense.com/articles/2017/04/25/industrial-instrument-manufacturer-met-south-announces-relocation-hanceville.
In addition to tax abatements, the City of Hanceville will have to go out of pocket to prepare the chosen site for the Met-South facility, based on an agreement with the company. In order to recoup some of that expense, the council voted to apply for an industrial development grant that would reimburse up to $15,000 of the City’s costs.
In other business
The council also unanimously approved the following resolutions and ordinances:
Surplus a military 2.5 ton truck recently donated to the City, and auction it on GovDeals.com. Due to an oversight, the truck had already been placed on the auction site; the council’s vote allowed it to stay and bidding to continue.
Repave the track at Veterans’ Park at a cost of $8,750, to include the paving company’s transport of asphalt. The City was offered a lower rate if it would transport the asphalt in city trucks, but the difference in cost was not considered enough to offset increases in city labor and wear on vehicles.
Participate in the state sales tax holiday on the weekend beginning Friday, July 21. Hanceville will forego half- and quarter-cent sales taxes as the county and state set aside their taxes on selected items.
Reduce the ceiling on low-cost building permits from $1,000 to $500, and lower the in-effect period on building permits from two years to one year.
Limit the number of fish that fishermen can remove from the pond at Veterans’ Park to five per person. The City stocks the pond for its annual Fish-O-Rama, but opens the pond to public fishing at other times. Shortly after the event, a single individual was witnessed allegedly removing an estimated 80-100 pounds of fish from the pond.
Nail reported that the city’s pool is nearing readiness to open for the summer season, and that the installation of the civic center’s new air conditioning unit has been completed. He also noted that, during Hanceville’s recent city-wide cleanup, city workers picked up and delivered 44 tons of trash to the landfill.
Announcements
Downtown Hanceville on the Move – May 25, at 5:30 p.m.
Tractor show – June 10
The Hanceville City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, in the auditorium at Hanceville City Hall. Work session at 6 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
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