ETNA GREEN – Town Council introduced a cumulative capital improvement fund and accepted the statement of compliance for a tax district Tuesday. The improvement fund resolution will set a tax of up to five cents on every $100 of assessed property evaluation, to be saved up for needed repairs around town. In first discussing the fund last month, council members said they expect it to generate about $5,500 a year. No comments were made during the public hearing for the fund Tuesday. Town attorney Jay Rigdon will prepare a confirmatory resolution, and the fund must be approved by the state Department of Local Government Finance before it can begin gathering money in 2015. Council also accepted the statement of compliance from Winona Powder Coating Inc. in preparation for establishing a Tax Increment Finance district northeast of town. The TIF will encompass property where Winona Powder is moving and expanding its operations. The statement of compliance, presented to council by company President Fred Fribley, spells out employment and investment benchmarks the company must meet for council to periodically renew the TIF. Fribley said they don’t expect to make new hires until next year, though the move to Etna Green does mean several property and equipment investments, such as the $300,000 purchase of a new powder coating booth. He said they expect eventually to add 35 employees to their existing 38. Winona is moving into two long-vacant buildings in Etna Green with a total of 200,000 square feet. It leaves behind a smaller facility in Mentone, where Fribley said there wasn’t land to grow. Fribley and council members noted after the meeting that the Etna Green properties have been vacant for all but nine months in the past decade. “We have plenty of room to expand and we’ve been thinking about what to do with it,” Fribley said. “(CEO Jamie) Visker’s always thinking about something.”
