March 21, 2000
Tiffin Metal Products gets councils O.K.
By Erik Burriss
Staff Writer
The Tiffin City Council unanimously approved a 10-year, 100 percent abatement for real estate and personal property taxes for an $875,000 expansion by a sheet metal products company.
Tiffin Metal Products will build a 110-foot by 180-foot addition to the back of its existing facility, costing an estimated $525,000, C.E.O. Will Heddles said. The company also plans to invest $50,000 in improvements to existing buildings, $275,000 in new equipment and machinery and $25,000 in furniture and fixtures.
Heddles said the expansion is necessary to keep up with demand for the company's products, such as billboards and lockers, and will enable the company to create 11 jobs. The new positions will mainly be assembly-type jobs paying between $7.50 and $8 an hour.
Michael Reser, the company's treasurer and director of operations, said the total abated taxes will come to about $108,000 over the 10 years of the agreement. However, under the terms of a sidebar agreement, the company agreed to donate 37 percent of the abated amount to the Tiffin City Local School District and another 3 percent to the Sentinel Vocational Center.
"That's real important to us," Reser said, "because our workers come from a vocational setting."
Mayor Bernie Hohman said tax abatements provide a way to help keep business from relocating out of the area. Mike Grandillo, 4th Ward councilman, called the expansion "another indication of their long-term commitment to Tiffin."
In addition to job creation, At-large Councilman Mark Hayes pointed out "the trickle-down effect" on the economy because of the money spent by the company on contractors for the expansion.
"Whatever we can," Reser said, "we're going to do locally."