The sporadic history of the past Cannon County Industrial Boards has created some major problems that the current Industrial Board is working toward straightening out. Over the past eight years the Industrial Board which had been meeting quarterly only had two meetings where a quorum could be called. Past boards conducted meetings, made decisions and continued with business as usual despite a lack of quorum. This in itself has caused some issues with Industrial owned buildings and tenants leases. The problems of the past were evident during last nights monthly meeting of the Cannon County Industrial Board. The Board set up guidelines for lease agreements for two current tenants operating in Industrial owned buildings
Those guidelines will allow for a tax abatement for both tenants T.H.C. Select on Alexander Drive and P.C. Disposal on Bryant Lane. After a cost benefit analysis was completed on both businesses by consulting firm Younger and Associates of Jackson Tennessee it was suggested from the information submitted that the rent on THC Select could be as high as $8860 a month. THC Select hasn’t paid any rent since they occupied the Alexander Drive Building in January of 2011. Board Member Doug Bodary made the motion that with all the figures given the rent should be set at $5,500 a month. In addition $2,000 per month will be charged to T.H.C. Select to recuperate $17,522.00 that the Industrial Board paid through the county for the electricity and water of the building while THC Select were moving their operations from Waverly to Woodbury. The County paid the electricity and water with IDB funds from August of 2010 through Feburary of 2011. The back rent owed to the Industrial Board from THC Select which amounts close to $51,000.00 will be waived as there was no drawn up lease agreement in effect Rent will be due by the 10th of the month. After the 10th a late fee of 10 percent will be tacked on. If rent has not been paid for two consecutive months, the tenant will be subject to eviction. P.C. Disposal’s rent according to the analysis could be as high as $3612.00 a month. However it was also suggested by Bodary that the rent should currently be set at $1500 a month. P.C. Disposal had not paid rent in the last four months . Their back rent was also waived because as in the case of THC Select there was also no lease agreement in effect The motion was passed. Board chairman Randal Reid along with board member Dean Moore will talk with officials from both companies to make sure all are in agreement before drawing up a lease.
In other actions during the meeting which took place at Crane Interiors on Alexander Drive last night. The Board agreed to look further into the costs and benefits of moving their account out from under the County and into their own separate fund. This move will allow them to be responsible for their own monies and not have to rely on the County Executive’s office to sign any checks. After a tour of the Crane Interior facility hosted by Mark Scott, it was back to work on new business items on the agenda.
The only new business that was actually heard before adjournment was from Cannon County Executive Mike Gannon. Gannon pointed out a few discrepancies on the July 2012 minutes. When the Board discussed THC Select during that meeting it was put in the minutes that THC Select had not paid any rent or utilities to date. THC Select has actually been taking care of the utilities since Feburary of 2011 even though the Industrial Board has yet to see a rent payment. It was agreed that the correction will be reflected as comments in the minutes of the September meeting. The second discrepancy that was pointed out by Gannon showed that he was named as allowing THC Select to waive personal property taxes for a five year period. Gannon says that he had not given that authoriziation and did not know anything about the matter until recent discussions with County Property Assessor Donald Preston. The correction will be made based on a letter THC Select had sent to the Property Assessor’s office. The third discrepancy dealt with the minutes reflecting that the THC Select deal that brought their operations to Woodbury was conducted by Executive Gannon under the term handshake deal. Gannon maintained that any decision on bringing THC Select was in conjunction with the Industrial Board and the handshake deal was actually termed a gentlemen’s agreement. After a video on the internet was played that showed Gannon discussing a gentlemen’s agreement during a previous Industrial Board Meeting, he backed off of the importance of that correction being made. It was also noted that the meeting in question with the Industrial Board and THC Select back in 2010 was one of the meetings that due to lack of quorum that no official decisions should’ve been made in the first place. To help clear everything up in regards to these corrections, secretary Corey Davenport will review the tape of the meeting and make the corrections and present them at the next board meeting in October
