The Sweet Home City Council approved a resolution last week to expand the City of Sweet Home’s enterprise zone to include the Pope and Talbot and Georgia Pacific mills near Halsey.
Sweet Home’s enterprise zone, a special designation allowing tax breaks for businesses, includes everything within the city limits. It also extends west along Highway 20 to include a former mill site. The additions will not be contiguous with the rest of Sweet Home’s zone but will be considered a part of the Sweet Home’s enterprise zone.
Both mills are considering expansions that would make them eligible to use the enterprise zone designation. Expanding Sweet Home’s enterprise zone is a simpler process than creating a new one, and Sweet Home will still be able to expand it further by more than four square miles.
Enterprise zones are limited to 12 square miles. The addition of the 1,195.43 acres near Halsey would bring Sweet Home’s zone to 7.47 square miles.
The City Council held a public hearing on the expansion during its regular meeting on Aug. 27.
John Pascone testified in support of the expansion on behalf of Linn County and the Albany-Millersburg Economic Development Corporation (AMEDEC) along with Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist and Sweet Home Economic Development Group’s Economic Development Coordinator Karen Owen.
Linn County’s economic situation is dismal, Pascone said. Since 1997, the county has lost about 5,000 manufacturing jobs. The expansion is an opportunity to help the two plants near Halsey expand and provide local jobs.
The only business incentive available in Oregon for taxes is the enterprise zone, Pascone said. A number of employees at the two mills live in Sweet Home, and the companies would likely draw new employees from Sweet Home as well.
The enterprise zone allows businesses to defer property taxes on new investment, Pascone said. At the basic level, an increase in an investment at the plants would provide three years of deferral. If the companies provide a certain number of new jobs that pay 150 percent, about $42,000 per year, of Linn County’s average income, the deferral could be extended to four or five years.
“This would be a boon for not only this community but the county at large,” Owen said. “Therefore we support this.”
The expansion should not cost the City of Sweet Home anything. AMEDEC will provide necessary staffing for the new part of the zone. Sweet Home will continue to staff and manage the local portion of the enterprise zone.
In other business, the council:
Waived $1,092.28 in building and permit fees for Oregon Mennonite Residential Services for its “Alpha House” remodeling project.
OMRS is seeking a grant to help make one of its seven Oregon homes, 3004 Harding St., wheelchair accessible. OMRS provides housing to low-income developmentally disabled persons. One of the criteria for grant approval is community support, and OMRS hopes to show the support through the fee waiver.
Appointed Dr. Dean Kyle to the Traffic Safety Committee. Thomas D. Kinnaird also applied for the appointment.
Approved a resolution to place a lien on properties where the City of Sweet Home cut weeds that violated city code. City code enforcement sent letters to the properties requesting the “noxious vegetation” be cut. If the properties remained in violation of the code, the City of Sweet Home hired a person to cut them.
The cost of cutting plus an administrative fee of 30 percent was invoiced to the property owners. The council agreed to lien the properties for the amount of the invoice on bills that were unpaid for more than 30 days. Liens will be placed on 26 properties.
Approved a resolution to place a stop sign on West Pine Street at Evergreen Lane.
Approved a resolution to remove the 15-minute parking restriction on the west side of 10th Avenue.
Approved a resolution to install a no-parking sign and yellow curb on Kalmia Street and establish a bus stop for Linn Shuttle there.
Held the first reading of an ordinance to establish an emergency management plan.
Held the second reading of an ordinance that would vacate a portion of Clark Mill Road that has not been in use for several decades and no longer exists as a roadway.