The Emporia City Commission has granted a ten-year tax exemption for a major local employer deemed a great “corporate citizen.”
Commissioners unanimously approved the exemption for Simmons Pet Food during their recent action session Wednesday afternoon. The exemption is for real property improvements associated with Simmons’ expansion back in 2018 and 2019.
According to city manager Mark McAnarney, Simmons met all requirements to qualify for the exemption per an incentive and compliance agreement signed with the city back in 2018. This included completing the project and creating a specified number of new jobs, which commissioner Jon Geitz says they exceeded.
According to Geitz, Simmons currently employees over 700 individuals in the local community and has been a great “corporate citizen” since coming to the local community.
Geitz adds Simmons’ standing in the community has been further bolstered by recent efforts to support not only their own employees but the entire community during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Geitz over the past few weeks, Simmons has catered in over 3,000 meals for their employees as well as provided meals for local first responders with all of the meals being purchased from local businesses.
Geitz says this is a major contribution to the community especially given the financial circumstances most businesses are currently facing.
In other business Wednesday, commissioners also accepted two grants from the Federal CARES Act. The first grant comes through the Federal Aviation Administration in the amount of $30,000 while the second comes from the Department of Health and Human Services totaling around $50,000.
Geitz says at this time there are no concrete plans on where to allocate those funds, however, he says the FAA grant comes as the city is in the process of resurfacing runways at the Emporia Municipal Airport and there is a possibility the grant may be utilized to fund the city’s cost for that work.
As for the Health and Human Services grant, Geitz says conversations have ranged from using the funds to help supplement either the city’s ambulance budget or the health insurance budget, however, no formal decisions have been made yet.
In separate business Wednesday, commissioners also approved a design and engineering contract with BG Consultants for work on city sanitary sewer lift stations and an airport construction services contract with HW Lochner. A number of bids for an assortment of city projects also gained unanimous approval including water main improvements on Peyton Street, the 2020 street resurfacing project, a slurry seal chip seal project and an airport seal coat project.
Mayor Danny Giefer also made two proclamations, the first recognizing May 10-16 as National Police Week and the second declaring May as community action month.
Emporia City Commissioners will reconvene next Wednesday at 10 am for a study session.
