WEATHERSFIELD Trustees OK tax break for plastics company

A Masury company will locate a plant in Weathersfield.
By MARY R. SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- Weathersfield Township trustees have approved a 60 percent tax abatement for 10 years on new personal property investments for Champion Molded Plastics Inc.
Trustees held a special meeting Tuesday to review the company's request. It plans to locate a new plant in the Niles Commerce Park, 1818 N. Main Street, also known as state Route 169, northwest of North Road, which is in Weathersfield Township.
The company also operates a plant in Masury. It has plans for further expansion at the Weathersfield site, where it will take over a building.
Trustee chairman James Stoddard said company officials told trustees it plans to eventually employ up to 20 people at the new site.
Personal property
The company molds plastic parts. The abatement will be on new personal property investments such as machinery, equipment, furniture, fixtures and inventory.
Stoddard said that he doesn't know what the 60 percent abatement will cost in taxes, but added, "We were glad to have them in the township."
The Trumbull County Planning Commission must also act on the tax abatement request and is expected to do so at its meeting today.
Zoning change denied
In other business Tuesday, trustees denied a zone change request from Residential A to Commercial A for five acres of woods along state Route 46.
The Commercial-A classification permits light commercial use, such as for banks and office buildings.
Trustees had to act on the measure at a public hearing, which no one attended.
The petitioners, Walter and Dorothy Malinowski, had withdrawn the request last week, zoning inspector Sherri Craver said Tuesday.
The couple had sought the zone change because a cell phone company was interested in putting up towers on the land. The township Zoning Commission, however, had denied the request because most of the property the rezoning would have affected is behind homes on state Route 46. The commission expressed concerns that once the zoning was changed, there would be no control over future types of development on the Commercial-A classification. The trustees could have overruled the zoning commission.