Finding a place to put a COVID-19 testing site remains a challenge for Pulaski County. The county had been hosting an OptumServe testing site at the Star City Community Center but decided to move it to a county-owned building at the end of last month, to save on costs.
Continue reading
The Pulaski County Council narrowly approved a list of tax abatement renewals Monday, despite concerns about one business’s compliance. FRATCO’s paperwork drew the attention of Council Member Kathi Thompson. She pointed out that while the business was meeting its requirement for the number of employees, the total salaries that were listed fell short of projections.
Continue readingWinamac High School seniors will soon participate in a newly-installed work ethic certificate program.
The Eastern Pulaski School Corporation’s application for the program was accepted by the Department of Workforce Development to join the Governor’s Work Ethic Certificate Program. The program is designed to connect employers to their local school district to create a collaborative partnership that benefits the community.
Last Wednesday, seven employees graduated from an 18 week-long NIMS Electrical Maintenance Training Class. This was the first training class to be offered at this capacity in the nation and it was an incredible success for Pulaski County.
All seven employees had perfect attendance throughout the course. According to Pulaski County Economic Development officials, these individuals demonstrated dedication to their craft and a commitment to continuously work on advancing their skills. Each graduate was awarded a nationally recognized credential issued by the National Institute for Metalworking Skills. Employers stated that employees who went through the training are already displaying noticeable results on the job. Continue reading
If businesses don’t create jobs, they don’t deserve a tax abatement, according to a Pulaski County Council member, even if they’ve already been getting one for several years. Last week, the council considered several abatement renewal requests. All of them except one had met their requirements and were recommended for approval by the Community Development Commission.
The Winamac Town Board opened three bids for a new transformer for the Plymouth Tube company.
The company is planning to expand its business and bids were received for transformers to add electric services to the property. A new substation will be built to accommodate the expansion. All of the bids were in the $385,000 range. The bids were taken under advisement and the Town Board members will be discussing the bids with officials from Plymouth Tube and future plans with the company.
That’s the message the county commissioners would like to send by agreeing to a $200,000 investment in Plymouth Tube’s expansion into Pulaski County. The commissioners agreed this week to invest up to that amount from their SEEDIT fund to support the expansion, assuming the project comes to Pulaski County.
The town of Winamac will possibly be investing $400,000 in the project as well. Currently, the Winamac substation is unable to keep up with demand and requires an expansion to function at full capacity.
In addition to creating extra jobs, the average wage for these positions is expected to rise to $16.45 per hour by 2014. According to Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer, approving the tax abatement would show businesses that Pulaski County is “open for business,” and Commissioner Kenneth Boswell agreed.
