Snider Tire plans to expand facility
Posted on Wednesday, November 02, 2011
City Council grants tax abatements on $1 million project, which will add three jobs to workforce
A westside Bluffton business is ready to expand.
Snider Tire, 1400 W. Wiley Ave., will break ground next Tuesday on a 20,000-square-feet addition to its existing building. That addition will house a paint oven system and aluminum wheel polisher.
Dave Double, manager of the Snider Tire facility, came to the Bluffton Common Council Tuesday night to ask for tax abatements on the expanded building, valued at $617,192, and on the new equipment, $335,000. While the investment of just under $1 million will add only three new jobs to the Snider Tire payroll, Double noted that it continues a trend at the plant.
“Three years ago, we had 29 employees,” he told the council members Tuesday night. “Today, it’s 61. We’re very busy.”
The plant takes in about 7,000 aluminum wheels a month, sandblasts them, and powder coats them. The addition and the new equipment will pick that total up to 8,000 or 9,000 a month, Double said.
“We’re moving the powder coating business out of the main building,” he said.
In addition, the plant retreads tires — about 1,700 a week, Double said.
“This is a very exciting project,” Mayor Ted Ellis said. “It’s good to do it here.”
The addition will have a steel frame and a concrete floor, much like the current facility has. The builders have said they would have it done by Feb. 1, and the equipment should be moved in by
the middle of that month, he said. He said the lighting and furnaces in the old building will be upgraded as new ones are installed in the addition.
“Everything will be green,” Double said.
The ground-breaking for the new plant is slated for 1:30 p.m. Nov. 8.
Also Tuesday night, the council members — Melanie Durr, Jim Phillabaum, Bette Erxleben, Carl Perry, and Michael Morrissey — approved a transfer of $1,000 within the animal control budget.
That will allow for the construction of a concrete pad where the animals exercise at the shelter. The
money for the improvement was donated to the city by the Friends of the Shelter.
The council also approved two resolutions on technical matters requested by the State Board of
Accounts. One involved the switch to a new computer system in City Hall and another concerned the
council’s formal approval of forms that had already been approved by the agency.
Article by Dave Schultz, courtesy of the News-Banner
Posted in Business News
