At a price of $1.9 million, 60 of
94-acres that are part of the Kings County Municipal Airport will be
rezoned M2 and owned by Michelin by October, 2015, or no later than April 1, 2016.
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| July 28 2014 Frank Magazine depiction indicating County's eagerness for Michelin deal |
With that portion gone the smaller
parcel remaining becomes unusable as a municipal airport.
Councillors Atwater, Bishop, Winsor and
I voted against executing the agreement. Councillor VanRooyen, out of
the country on FCM business when the Special Council meeting was
called, was also opposed. Why did the familiar 6 to 5 split in opinion so common in
council chambers occur this time?
Yesterday, it was a matter of how much a
councillor wanted to gamble with a $20 M asset.
Throughout the debate, the
question remained of who would compensate the taxpayers of Kings County
for loss of large capital investments at the airport if in the end there's
no Michelin expansion to offset this loss.
Those opposed to the agreement promoted by both the CAO and Warden Brothers wanted simple conditions to
the sale. These conditions would ensure the land, once sold, would be used for the intended purpose---an
expansion of the tire manufacturing line---resulting in hundreds of needed jobs. With such conditions all councillors
could have happily endorsed the agreement. If a guarantee of
expansion could not be confirmed within a defined yet flexible timeframe, we
wanted the land and airport to remain as a key asset of Kings County
taxpayers.
The Final Report of CBCL's Waterville Airport
Relocation Study (May 2013) shows 19 full time equivalent jobs
at the airport and over a million spent annually on labour, goods and
services. In addition it highlights annual owner operator draws close to $600 thousand
(2012).
There may be a big Michelin bird in the
bush but yesterday Kings County Council squandered an opportunity to
keep a firm hold on a profitable and valuable airport until the
bigger opportunity was in hand.
Warden Brothers and Deputy Hirtle were
supported in their endorsement of Michelin's agreement by Councillors
Best, Ennis, Lloyd and MacQuarrie. Supported by the CAO, the six put
hope, faith and belief in the tire giant's stated intent, if not guarantee,
to expand. That was a bold move. Perhaps it's a move these six would not have made
if their personal assets had been on the line.
Each and every Kings County councillor
is united in a desire to see Michelin expand. If that happens, the shortfalls of the
agreement signed with Michelin will not matter. In the meantime I am greatly concerned.
If at the point of the sale's completion Kings County
ends up with a 1.9 million dollar parking lot instead of the 20 million dollar asset the airport currently represents the good news spin placed by the Warden on the sale will no longer
apply. Conditions tying the sale to a confirmed expansion and/or
compensation for the lost of the airport in the absence of an
expansion was simply good business that did not come to pass.
True, governments are keen to have big employers like Michelin in their neighbourhood. An example of balance however can be seen in Lexington, South Carolina, if not in Kings County. There government spent $47M to adjusting a highway system to facilitate expansion. However, a condition of repayment was part of that deal. When after 10-years expansion had not yet occurred repayment was brought into play and a plant was built.
What is known here is it's to Michelin's advantage to have land available.
True, governments are keen to have big employers like Michelin in their neighbourhood. An example of balance however can be seen in Lexington, South Carolina, if not in Kings County. There government spent $47M to adjusting a highway system to facilitate expansion. However, a condition of repayment was part of that deal. When after 10-years expansion had not yet occurred repayment was brought into play and a plant was built.
What is known here is it's to Michelin's advantage to have land available.
Michelin's Grant
Ferguson has succeeded in positioning his Waterville Plant to compete
for the investment funds needed for any expansion. That's the
silver, if precarious, lining here.
With fingers and
toes crossed I hope for his success. Meanwhile, my opinion is Kings
County business needs to be conducted on more solid ground than a
wing and a prayer.
