Development Authority working to attract and keep businesses
The Walker County Development Authority meeting agenda for May included updates concerning environmental hazards at a county-owned property, efforts to assist an existing business, and new companies coming to the area.
Executive Director Robert Wardlaw reported that Marion Environmental is handling clean-up of a hazardous chemical contamination at the former Coats-American plant in Rossville.
“This is to remediate a PCB spill, something that could take four months,” he said. “Two proposals for the property have been put on hold until the site is considered ‘clean.’”
The chemical spill occurred when a thief was taking copper wire from several transformers that were stored at the building on Maple Street, near the former Rossville High School.
Authority board members discussed an ongoing project to help Unique Fabricating expand operations at its LaFayette facility.
“The aim is to keep Unique in Walker County,” Wardlaw said.
Domestic truck and automobile manufacturers are the company’s primary customers, ones served from two sites located behind the Chevrolet dealership on McCarter Street.
Director of Operations Robert Bell reiterated the company intends to move forward by hiring more than 30 full-time employees — with benefits — and investing more than $3 million in capital assets. The Development Authority is supporting Unique’s expansion by offering tax abatements.
Wardlaw said the Authority, which acts as a go-between for site-selection agents and developers or land owners, has been contacted by a company that is interested in what Walker County has to offer. The county is among several locations vying for selection as this company’s new home, but it is too early in negotiations for the identity of the potential business being made public. In the meantime, Wardlaw said the location and company will be referred to as “Project Heel.”
Non-disclosure agreements are common when sites are being scouted, both as a way to not tip the potential investor’s hand and to keep the process competitive.
As an example, nearly two years of negotiations revolving around “Project Hilltop” in nearby Catoosa County, when successfully concluded, resulted in construction of Costco alongside Interstate 75.
Wardlaw was slightly more forthcoming about another opportunity, “Project Gingerbread,” that is in the early stages of the courtship between the Authority and industry. In this case, a German company “has expressed interest in Walker County” for opening a baked goods plant that might have 200-250 employees.