Two Bluffton companies came to the city’s Common Council Tuesday night asking for tax abatements. Both requests were approved.
The two requests will add only one job, for now, with the hope of others to follow.
A.T. Ferrell., 1440 S. Adams St., produces machinery for the agricultural and food industries. Dale Ziegler, the company’s chief financial officer, said it produces flaking machines for Kellogg’s.
“So that means if you had some Kellogg’s Corn Flakes for breakfast …” Mayor Ted Ellis said, and Ziegler completed the thought: One of the A.T. Ferrell machines produced the cereal.
Ferrell was asking for 10 years of tax abatement on a machining center and a clausing lathe. The estimated cost of the machinery is $237,148. The start date for installation is Dec. 1 and the machinery is expected to be in place by the end of the year.
The company will add only one job right now, with an estimated salary of $35,000, but Ziegler said it was possible that another employee may be hired to operate the new equipment on a second shift.
In response to questions from council members, Ziegler said the machinery is expected to last 20 to 25 years. The computer software that runs the machinery, however, may be obsolete in 10 years.
The other request came from Inventure Foods, for $6 million in equipment. The company is considering moving production of kettle chips from Arizona to its Bluffton facility, and the machinery that would be purchased includes a potato washer, peeler, four kettles, and conveyors.
The estimated start date for the installation would be March 15, 2016, with a completion date of May 1.
The company listed no additional employees, but Diane Johnson, Wells County’s economic development project manager, said that was a misnomer. “They do anticipate additional employees, but they don’t know what that number would be,” Johnson said.
Both abatement requests were approved on unanimous votes.
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