FedEx Ground gets a tax break

The project will retain 92 jobs and add 30 over three years.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners have approved a 60 percent, nine-year real estate tax abatement for a new $7.5 million FedEx Ground package distribution terminal in North Jackson.

The new 79,000-square-foot structure, to be completed by August 2008, will be at the northeast corner of Interstate 76 and Bailey Road, with the building costing $5.2 million and an additional $2.3 million for equipment and technology. The project will retain 92 jobs, and FedEx expects to add 30 jobs in North Jackson over three years.

The new building, capable of being expanded to more than 100,000 square feet, will replace the 43,000-square-foot leased building the company has outgrown on DeBartolo Drive in Youngstown Commerce Park in North Jackson.

“We can’t move as many packages per day as the service area is requiring out of the current facility. The new facility will allow us to deliver almost 2 1/2 times the current packages per day,” said Debbie Dillinger, FedEx tax accounting administrator. The new building will expand the company’s North Jackson package handling capacity from 16,000 to 35,000 packages a day, she added.

Collectively, the county, Jackson Township and the Jackson-Milton schools will forgo $585,507 in real estate tax revenues over the life of the abatement.

The expansion will be part of a $1.8 billion terminal relocation and expansion project the Pittsburgh-based company is undertaking across North America, Dillinger said.

911 dispatchers contract

The commissioners also approved a three-year labor contract with 15 emergency 911 dispatchers, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2006, and providing 3 percent annual pay raises for the dispatchers, who earn between $12 and $16 per hour.

The dispatchers, who belong to the Fraternal Order of Police, got no raises in 2005.

Under the contract, which the dispatchers ratified before the commissioners did, the dispatchers become the last unionized county employee group to begin making health care premium contributions, said Charles Wilson, FOP staff representative. They’ll pay 10 percent of the $200 monthly premium for single coverage or of the $1,000 a month family coverage premium.

The commissioners awarded the $263,813 Herbert Road bridge replacement project in Canfield to Jet Excavating Inc. of Springfield Township. The bridge carries Herbert Road over Saw Mill Creek.

The work will begin Oct. 15, and the bridge will be closed throughout the two- to three- month project, said Richard Marsico, county engineer. The detour will be via state Route 46, U.S. Route 224 and Palmyra and Turner roads. The project is being paid for by state, county and city of Canfield funds.

In other action, the commissioners:

UAgreed to advertise for bids for the purchase of a new sanitary sewer closed circuit video inspection truck, estimated to cost $170,000, to replace a leased truck.

UApproved spending $26,000 in county Green Team funds for the city of Youngstown’s first leaf collection and composting program this fall.

UHeard Green Team Director Jim Petuch announce a metal household appliance collection drive, with free Freon removal, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 29 at Austintown Township Hall, 82 Ohltown Road.

UAnnounced their next meeting will be at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Lowellville Village Hall, 140 E. Liberty St.