Wind project tax break gets preliminary OK: The Courier-Times

Henry County Council members took a preliminary vote Wednesday to approve a tax abatement for the Flat Rock Wind (Apex) project.

Apex plans to invest $66 million in southern Henry County by constructing and leasing about 30 turbines to private land owners. The company wants to build 61 turbines in Rush County, an investment of about $135 million.

Corey Murphy, president and CEO of the New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corporation, presented the proposed tax abatement resolution.

“The project should have a positive impact on the economy of Henry County, and the totality of benefits to be derived from the acquisition of new equipment and redevelopment of the real estate is sufficient to justify the deduction created by the approval of the tax abatement,” Murphy said.

The preliminary resolution proposed a traditional 10-year abatement, with a 100 percent deduction in the first year that declines by 10 percent each year after that.

The start date for the project is tentatively scheduled for March 1, 2017 with an approximate end date of Dec. 31, 2017.

A motion to approve the preliminary tax abatement resolution passed the council with a 6-0 vote. There will be a public hearing regarding the abatement at the next Henry County Council meeting, which is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. April 27 on the second floor of the Henry County Courthouse, 101 S. Main St., New Castle. A final discussion and vote on the abatement will take place at that time.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, councilman Clay Morgan advised that it was important for the Henry County Jail to run a needs assessment. He invited the owner of Quality Correction Care in Muncie, Lisa Scroggins, to speak about her experiences with jails and prisons. Quality Correction Care has worked with the Henry County Jail for the past five years.

Scroggins explained that even though officers are trained in self defense tactics, many facilities are understaffed, which puts the nurses at the jail at risk.

“The jail nurses are not trained in those self-preservation modes, so we rely on officers to be there to help,” Scroggins said.

In addition, she added that mental health issues are a big problem for many jails and prisons across the country, including Henry County.

“What we have here in Henry County is not adequate,” councilman Dick Bouslog said.

Henry County Commissioner Butch Baker said funding for the assessment was needed and that the project would take about nine months to complete in order to look at the entire criminal justice system. The Henry County Council will take a vote on whether to take money for the needs assessment from the Local Option Income Tax (LOIT) fund at its April meeting.

Also during Wednesday’s meeting, Sheriff Ric McCorkle said that his department didn’t need $220,225 from the LOIT fund as previously requested to repair roofs at the Henry County Jail and the criminal investigations division building.

“What I’m going to tell you now, you won’t hear very often, but we’re going to come in well under the $220,000,” McCorkle said, noting that actual repairs would cost, at most, $110,000 for both buildings.

Using LOIT funds, by a vote of 5-0, the council approved $110,000 for the roof repairs, as well as $128,577 to pay off sheriff’s department vehicles.

Henry County Commissioner Kim Cronk also brought up repairs for the former Masonic building, 1201 Race St., New Castle, which were estimated at about $34,485 and considered an emergency repair situation. The council discussed taking the money from either the Reclassification fund or the Rainy Day fund. The motion for the $34,670 to go to the Masonic building repairs from the Reclassification fund was approved on a 5-0 vote.

*This was a story I wrote after covering the Henry County Council Meeting in March. I did research on the wind project before attending, so that i would have a better understanding of what they were discussing.