STRASBURG Franklin Township and the village of Strasburg have formed a Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) in anticipation of ProVia Door of Sugarcreek constructing a manufacturing facility in the township.
STRASBURG Franklin Township and the village of Strasburg have formed a Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) in anticipation of ProVia of Sugarcreek constructing a manufacturing facility in the township.
A public hearing was held Tuesday at the Wallick Auction building on N. Wooster Avenue about establishing the JEDD.
Doug Hensel, a Franklin Township trustee and chairman and point person for the Joint Economic Development District, said ProVia has purchased 78.9 acres of land north of the village and is interested in constructing a 300,000-square-foot facility that would tentatively be used to manufacture vinyl windows and serve as ProVia’s primary distribution center.
The estimated cost to construct the facility is about $28 million and within three years company officials expect employment to reach 200 workers at the Franklin Township site. ProVia would like to break ground in August and open in August 2019.
“Although the proposed site is outside the village, ProVia would prefer village water and sewer for the facility and would be willing to extend water and sewer lines from the corporation limit to the site at an estimated cost of $2 million. In exchange for ProVia’s investment in infrastructure, Franklin Township is willing to offer a 50 percent real estate tax abatement over seven and a half years,” Hensel said.
“The potential commercial development could result from the extension of water, sewer and natural gas lines along the 21/250 corridor and could potentially accelerate the need for the village to invest in a multi-million-dollar sewer plant expansion,” he said.
To help cover the cost of a sewer plant extension and maintaining the extended water and sewer lines and lift station, the township and village are forming a JEDD, Hensel said.
JEDD has the ability to implement a 1.5 percent income tax, identical to that of the village, on income earned on any property that voluntarily joins the JEDD.
Other benefits to the JEDD are installing water, sewer, electric power and natural gas along the Routes 21/250 corridor, new jobs and increased tax revenue for the school, village and township.
Only those companies and employees involved in JEDD would pay the 1.5 percent income tax. If an individual pays village income tax, they would not pay this income tax.
Strasburg Village Administrator and the JEDD representative for the village, Ron Lambert, said what ProVia will discharge into the sewer will not affect the sewer plant at this time.
"This is great news for the county," said Harry Eadon, president and executive director of the Economic Development and Finance Alliance of Tuscarawas County. "We're excited about the prospect of it."
With ProVia extending water and sewer lines north of Strasburg, it will create the opportunity to develop several hundred acres in the area, he said. "It will likely bring in more business. That is what our hope is."
Don Dummermuth, of George A. Fiedler Associates in Dover, is the project engineer for both ProVia and the village Route 21/250 corridor.
Attorney Terry Seeberger, of Stark Knoll in Akron, was consulted and worked with village Law Director Richard Fox to set up the JEDD. The JEDD agreement is similar to one in Perry Township and the village of Navarre.
ProVia employs nearly 800 people at its headquarters and five manufacturing facilities in Sugarcreek, Walnut Creek and Baltic and in Booneville, Miss.