Fresh off this week’s election victories, Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams and members of the City Council moved quickly to help provide tax relief for one of the city’s largest employers.
The council approved on Thursday a resolution to provide Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. a 10-year ad valorem tax exemption on almost $4.5 million worth of property involved in a recent expansion and on inventory of up to nearly $15.3 million.
The exemption does not apply to inventory that already receives a free port warehouse exemption, which applies to finished goods in transit to a destination outside Mississippi.
Milwaukee Tool, under the agreement, must continue to pay all Greenwood School District taxes as it would normally.
Milwaukee Tool has been a growing presence in the city since 2002, when it employed 200 workers.
After a series of expansions, the Brookfield, Wisconsin-based company has enlarged its Greenwood workforce to close to 700.
In other business, Ward 6’s David Jordan asked if the Police Department could place “No Dumping” signs at various sites where illegal dumping is occurring regularly. “We can pick it up today, and tomorrow we have the same stuff. There ought to be a way to stop that,” he said.
Jordan said the dumping has reached epic proportions and detracts from the city’s image as a tourism destination.
“I agree with you 100 percent,” McAdams said. “We’ve put signs out, but I don’t think they say, ‘By order of the Police Department.’”
She said fines and penalties need to be increased to discourage dumping. She also added, “What people need to do is stop emptying out their entire homes on the city’s streets.”
Susan Bailey, director of the Public Works Department, said she could coordinate the placement of signs at trouble spots in the city.
The council also approved a permit application by C Spire covering the use and occupancy of a city right-of-way along U.S. 82 West. The telecommunications company plans to bore underneath the highway to run fiber optic cable that would serve locations south of the highway, according to Victor Stokes, the city’s community development director.
•Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
