LUMBERTON — The Robeson County Board of Commissioners on Monday agreed to renew an incentives agreement with Campbell Soup Supply Company LLC.
The approximately $540,000 in incentives, based on job creation and capital investment, are part of a four-year agreement the county made with the company in 2010. At that time, the company expanded its plant in Maxton to include a new manufacturing line at the cost of about $29.8 million. The expansion added about 100 employees.
According to Hal Kinlaw, the county’s attorney, the company gets incentives each of the four years of the agreement based on tax valuation of the property resulting from the new capital improvements. The incentives are contingent on the company retaining at least the 857 employees who work at the plant over four years, Kinlaw said.
“We feel it is better to give the incentives and keep the jobs,” Kinlaw said after Monday’s meeting.
If Campbell Soup continues to meet all the requirements contained in its agreement with the county, it will receive incentives valued at $128,436 in 2012 and $113,883 next year.
The commissioners on Monday also scheduled a public hearing for Sept. 17 to get input on repealing the county’s 2005 noise ordinance and replacing it with the noise ordinance the county had in 1993.
The ordinance change is being requested by Sheriff Kenneth Sealey, who has told the commissioners that the 2005 ordinance is too difficult to enforce.
Both County Manager Ricky Harris and Kinlaw said that the problem with the 2005 ordinance is that it is too technical.
Kinlaw said that the current ordinance requires noise levels with decibel meters from more than 300 feet away. The 1993 ordinance requires noise levels to be measured from only 50 feet away.
In other business, the commissioners:
n Received a request from Tom Norton, clinical director for Palmer Prevention Progam Inc., for more county money to support his organization’s substance abuse programs. Palmer is currently budgeted to receive $7,500 from the county during the current fiscal year.
Norton told the commissioners that $28 million in state money came into Robeson County last year to support substance abuse programs provided by different groups. His organization, he said, only received $115,000 of that amount.
n Passed a resolution approving a three-year update of the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan.
n Heard a brief report from Chris Oxendine, the county’s Veteran Services director, on services available to local veterans.
n Received a request for funding from My Refuge, an upstart non-profit that plans to provide food and temporary shelter for the needy in Robeson County. Rosemarie G. Glenn told the commissioners that her organization is in the process of acquiring property on West Fifth Street that already houses a building that can “comfortably” serve dinners to 200 people at a time.
— Landa Gaddy updated the commissioners on progress being made by her organization, Youth Self-Improvement Inc.
Reach staff writer Bob Shiles at 910-272-6117 or bshiles@heartlandpublications.com.
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