At its May 14 meeting, the Kosciusko County Council had a final hearing on a three-year tax abatement for AL&J Enterprise.

AL&J Enterprise is in the process of purchasing property on US 30, west of Warsaw, that has been vacant for several years. The company plans to renovate the building in move two businesses into the building

In this case, the resolution would abate taxes on the improvements made to the property. AL&J Enterprise plans to make $45,000 in improvements to the property.

According to attorney Steve Snyder, the acquisition of the property is nearly complete and the two companies who plan to move into the eager to set up shop. Those companies are Core Mechanical and D&D Maintenance.

D&D Maintenance will bring 7 existing employees into the facility and plans to add three more employees. Core Mechanical will bring four existing employees and plans to add four more.

There were no members of the public to speak for or against the abatement. The council approved it.

At last month’s meeting, the council was tasked with doing some research on the wheel tax, which was adopted in June 2014. The council is considering an ordinance that would reduce the tax on certain trailers.

The ordinance that came before the board last night proposes trailers weighing 3,000 pounds to 5,000 pounds would only be taxed $15 per year, and trailers weighing 5,000 pounds to 9,000 pounds would be taxed $25. Both weight classes are currently taxed $40 per month under the current wheel tax.

“It’s not a fair tax, we’ve all agreed to that,” said Bob Sanders, council president. “Do we want to give up some of those funds to take care of the roads that need to be taken care of?”

Sanders reported that the loss of funding equates to a loss of roughly three miles of paving per year. Conversely, should the rates stay the same, and half of the people who own such trailers choose not to register them, the county would lose about the same amount of funding. Sanders noted that if the wheel tax had been instituted earlier, the county wouldn’t be in such a pinch.

The ordinance went to a vote – which required unanimous approval – after a motion from councilman Larry Teghtmeyer, who said, “It doesn’t feel right to me that we would be charging these individuals $40 bucks who are willing to go out and register.”

The ordinance did not pass unanimously. Another vote will be held at next month’s meeting. In this case, the ordinance only requires a majority vote to pass.

Also at the meeting, Suzie Light and Brad Bishop came before the council to explain the benefits of the county joining the North East Indiana Partnership for the purpose of tapping into funding from the Regional Cities Initiative.

Mark Dobson appeared before the county commissioners late last month regarding the initiative. Sanders spoke in support of the partnership at the commissioner’s meeting, but stressed the importance of have support on the 5-person board; he echoed that sentiment at the council meeting.

“I feel it’s important that we have a seat,” said Sanders. Light explained there will be committees for different projects that will feed information to the board. “We must have strong voices at the table at all those levels,” said Light.

The county must submit its application to the state by July 1. The council endorsed joining the Northern Indiana Regional Partnership.