City, county move forward with enterprise zone

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada City Council and the Vernon County Commission held a rare joint meeting Tuesday evening at the City/County Community Center, Nevada, prior to the council's regular council meeting, to finalize the Vernon County Enhanced Enterprise Zone.

Tuesday night, as required by the state statutes establishing the Enhanced Enterprise Zone program, the Nevada City Council and the Vernon County Commission met to hold a public hearing and then each body unanimously passed a joint ordinance supporting an application for an Enhanced Enterprise Zone and setting the level of real property tax abatement in Nevada and the unincorporated part of Vernon County at 50 percent. for a period of 10 years.

The real property tax abatement is for new construction in the Vernon County Enhanced Enterprise Zone, which includes all of Nevada, including the industrial park, parts of Center and Washington townships, Deerfield and most of Deerfield and Coal townships between Nevada and the Kansas state line.

Molly McGovern, a consultant helping the county with this project, said that the Deerfield city council was unable to gather a quorum for Tuesday's meeting and will have to hold their own public hearing at a later date in order for any businesses located in Deerfield to be able to receive any of the tax incentives.

In addition to the local property tax abatement, the state offers tax credits to qualifying businesses in the Enterprise Zone of $400 for each job created, $400 for each person hired who lives in the zone and another $400 tax credit for each job that pays more than the county average wage of about $27,000.

Existing businesses in the enterprise zone are also eligible for tax incentives if they invest $100,000 in real property construction and create at least two new jobs.

Retail businesses, gambling establishments and food and drink facilities are not eligible for any of the tax incentives.

Service businesses that do most of their business outside of the state are eligible for the incentives, as are farms and other agribusinesses as well as manufacturing.

The state statutes require that the tax abatement must be at least 50 percent for a period of 10 years. However, at the discretion of the local governing bodies those limits can be set at up to 100 percent for the 25-year life of the Enterprise Zone.

The Vernon County Enhanced Enterprise Zone board met on Dec. 27 and decided to recommend that all business approved by the state statues are eligible for the available tax incentives.

In other business the council:

* Approved the appointment of Seth Barrett and Jim Erpenbach to four-year terms on the planning and zoning commission.

* Approved paying Lee Mathews Equipment, Inc., Kansas City, $6,873 for making emergency repairs to one of four oxidation ditch mixing pumps at the waste water treatment plant. This pump has failed and needs to be repaired. Joe Charles, public works director, told the council that it would cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to replace each of the pumps, which will not be needed when the city has completed the renovations to the waste water treatment plant.

* Held a public hearing and passed on first reading a special ordinance approving the rezoning of property at 725 E. Highland from R-1, single family, to C-3, commercial, at the request of Jason Hedges, the property owner. Hedges wants to build two mini-storage buildings on the property.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving a contracts with Lamar Outdoor Advertising for billboard advertising. The city currently has two billboards located on U.S. Highway 71 to promote Nevada events; one in Bates County and the second in Jasper County. The Bates County billboard has a 15-month contract for a total cost of $4,740 and the one in Jasper County has a 12-month contract for a total cost of $3,792.

* Adopted Resolution No. 1176 to approve the travel expenses for Harlan Moore, city manager; Julie Lewis, city clerk; Jim Rayburn, mayor; and councilman Russ Kemm to attend the Missouri Attorney General's Ethics Conference on Jan. 9, in Jefferson City. However, Kemm told the council that he will not be able to attend and if he were able to go he would not ask the city to cover any of his travel expenses.

* Adopted Resolution No. 1177 to approve the addition of one street light at the intersection of Hickory and West streets. Aquila requires that the city council authorize all street light additions with a resolution.

* Gave final approval to a special ordinance adopting the National Incident Management System as the basis for emergency management for the city of Nevada. Unless all elected and hired public officials undergo the required NIMS training the city will not be eligible for federal grant money in the future.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving a six-month extension of Harlan Moore's employment agreement.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving MNOD Shuttle Service to be reimbursed through the city's Fare Share Taxi Coupon program.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving the Vernon County Ambulance District to be reimbursed through the city's Fare Share Taxi Coupon program. The city contracts with the ambulance district to operate the city's handicapped-accessible van as part of the taxi coupon program. In addition to the reimbursement the city will pay the ambulance district $1,000 per month to help defray the cost of labor and insurance.