Louis Dreyfus Co. Commercial Manager Jeremy Mullins, right, advocates for the Kosciusko County Council to approve two tax abatements for the company at the council’s Thursday, May 13, meeting at the Kosciusko County Courthouse’s Old Courtroom. The company’s lawyer, Steve Snyder, is at left. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Louis Dreyfus Co. is trying again to obtain tax abatements from Kosciusko County.

At its meeting on Thursday, May 13, the Kosciusko County Council heard a request from the company’s lawyer, Steve Snyder.

He asked for one real estate tax abatement for 10 years with new construction valued at $18,272,000 and one personal property tax abatement for five years with improvements valued at $14,098,000 for the company’s facility in Claypool.

He said the personal property includes $12,710,000 in manufacturing equipment, $870,000 in IT equipment and $518,000 in logistics equipment. The plan is for the project to start this year and be finished at the end of 2022.

Snyder also represented the company in the fall when the council denied the requests for abatements.

The council voted 5-2 then to deny, with Sue Ann Mitchell, Mike Long, Jon Garber, Ernie Wiggins and then-member Kimberly Cates voting in opposition and Joni Truex and Doug Heinisch being for them.

Snyder and Louis Dreyfus Commercial Manager Jeremy Mullins addressed some of the reasons council members cited in the fall for denying the request.

One difference from before is that the project would employ 11 new people versus seven.

“We’re not talking about low-pay jobs; we’re talking about mid- to high-paying jobs, including an additional process engineer and other employees who will be in that $60,000 to $100,000 range,” said Snyder.

Mullins apologized for the company not paying its taxes on time in the past.

He argued that though the Louis Dreyfus Claypool facility doesn’t have many employees overall, it indirectly helps employ people in other county industries.

“I do want to maybe take a page out of (Creighton Brothers’ President) Ron Truex’s spiel … about county agriculture … we don’t have as many employees as you might see in orthopedics … we’re a very automated facility … whatever that number (of employees) is that’s really just a small portion of our employees because we employ so many other companies in the area,” said Mullins.

Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. (KEDCo) Business Development Partner Greg Fitzloff also gave an endorsement for the abatements from his organization.

The council didn’t vote on the requests but did approve having a public hearing on them at its next meeting, on June 10, at the Kosciusko County Courthouse’s Old Courtroom.

In other business, the council:

• Also approved a KEDCo policies and procedures handbook. The book provides guidelines for such things as tax increment financing, tax abatements and revolving loan funds. Kosciusko County Commissioners approved the handbook at their last meeting on May 11.Council members did express concerns about some policies in it. With them being reassured that they could still make changes to it and hold out on accepting one item in it, they approved the handbook.

• Discussed policies regarding meeting electronically. Council members looked at rules that Delaware County adopted on the issue governing county leaders attending meetings virtually. County Attorney Ed Ormsby also provided his take on the issue. The council decided to have one member work with Ormsby regarding the issue before making any formal decisions.