Tax abatement OK’d for relocating sign company

By Peter H. Milliken

The company will double its space when it moves to Austintown.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners have approved a 60 percent, 10-year real estate tax abatement for a sign-making company that is moving from Youngstown to Austintown.

To meet its expansion needs, McHenry Industries will move from its 19,000-square-foot Industrial Road location in Youngstown to a new 38,000-square foot plant it will build this year on Victoria Road in Austintown, said Ron Musilli Jr., company vice president.

“We need to add space to remain competitive. We’ve seen steady growth in sales for the last 10 to 15 years, and, to continue that growth, we need a new facility,” he said. Over the past decade, the company’s sales growth has been 5 to 8 percent annually, he told the commissioners Thursday.

The company, which now employs 52 people, plans to make a total investment of more than $4 million and add at least 15 employees within three years after the new plant opens.

A local family-owned business founded in 1964 by Musilli’s grandfather, the company is a wholesale manufacturer of commercial signs.

The Austintown trustees recommended approval of the abatement Monday. The township and its school district will forgo about $456,000 in tax revenue over the life of the abatement.

“This new state-of-the-art facility will be double the size of its existing building and will have sufficient land area for future growth,” said Thomas Presby, manager of business development for the Regional Chamber.

“Over the years, the company has grown and has run out of space, and, unfortunately, they can’t expand at their current location,” Presby told the commissioners.

“The building is being designed to provide for more efficiency in mass producing products that will make the company more competitive,” he added.

The commissioners also presented a resolution to Jim Graham, president of the United Auto Workers Local 1112, which represents General Motors Lordstown assembly workers, in support of the U.S. auto industry and its workers “in this critical transformation.”

“The collapse of this industry would reach far beyond Detroit. Shock waves to the economy would quickly put nearly 3 million people out of work,” said Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners. “Government support is a sound investment in an important industry and in America itself.”

“If General Motors goes away, you’d take $500 million out of the local economy,” Graham said.

“We’ve already taken a lot of concessions and we will probably do some other things coming up in the future because it’s imperative that we keep General Motors going, and it’s imperative that we keep Lordstown going,” he added.

When the Lordstown plant begins making the Chevrolet Cruze next year, “If there’s such a thing as a crown jewel of General Motors, we are going to be it in Lordstown,” Graham said.

The commissioners also appointed Don Hanni III and Richard Schiraldi to serve on the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

They also accepted the retirements, effective this month and next month, of Charles A. Navarra, recycling projects coordinator; and Ellen Sue Rentz, social service aide; Peggy Corley, administrative assistant; and Kathleen Rogers, social service worker, all with the county’s Department of Job and Family Services.

milliken@vindy.com