The Culver manufacturing plant Elkay (also known as Medallion) plans to add some 100 local jobs over the next four years, as well as a significant capital investment of new machinery and equipment, with the assistance of a tax abatement from the town of Culver.
The Culver town council, at its June 24 meeting, voted to declare the Elkay property an economic revitalization area as part of its recently-completed tax abatement policy, following discussion of the Elkay plan.
Jerry Chavez, executive director of the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation, introduced the discussion and noted that the process of choosing which of Elkay's several plants nationwide would expand was "very competitive." He also noted the property had been designated a redevelopment area back in 2005, and he added the company had already invested around $8.5 million in its Culver plant in the past few years with no tax abatement.
Plant manager Rick Coffman, explaining he'd been at Culver's Elkay plant for nearly three years, said Elkay has plants in US locales as far-flung as Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, and Virginia, and that some of the upcoming work could go to multiple plants, "but we would like to keep it here in Culver."
Elkay's plant has been on West Jefferson Street for more than eight years now, Coffman said, adding, "I want to see Culver in business forever."
Much of the $1.5 million investment the company is about to make here is in new equipment, explained Coffman, and the company will likely retrain some of its employees for the expanded work load.
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Town attorney Jim Clevenger said the tax abatement offered by the town is around $7,000 per year. Council president Ginny Munroe noted the discussion at the current meeting, however, pertained to establishing the district to allow the plant's abatement, rather than the abatement itself.
