Industrial park to be considered

Forming a committee to examine the idea of an industrial park will be on the city council's agenda next week.

The idea came before the Shelbyville council Tuesday evening after Walt Wood, chief executive officer of Shelbyville & Bedford County Chamber of Commerce, urged members to follow the advice recently given by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) representatives on how to attract industry and jobs to the region.

Wood said that the recent TVA session indicated that "the best practice ...for communities to appoint a committee to look at various sites that might be available."

"We've got 3,000 people out of work in this community," Wood said. "And there's maybe a lot more we don't know about. It would be a wise investment of time to see where we can go with it."

Mayor Wallace Cartwright and four city council members attended the TVA meeting two weeks ago.

Wood told the council, "as we've often discussed, we're not competitive with our neighbors, we don't have any property to compete with them," saying that surrounding communities all have industrial parks and spec buildings.

Councilman Al Stephenson supported the idea of forming the committee and Wood said when the body is formed, then TVA can come and assist with their expertise "and identify some sites that might be good for development" and examine the costs associated with a park.

Wood suggested it could be the city's industrial board that forms the committee, which he recommended be broad-based with 12 to 15 members from around the city and county.

TVA economic development specialist Deborah Cameron said two weeks ago that a public-owned industrial park would be a key to recruiting industries because of price issues.

Cameron explained that a private landowner may tell local economic development officials he is willing to sell a site for a specific price, but then, faced with the prospect of a big industrial buyer, may go up on that price, scaring off the buyer.

However, if the land is under the control of a city or county, they can set a price and can even sell the land at a loss if it believes the benefits of attracting a new industry justify that.

She also stated that local governments don't have to acquire the site right away if they can ensure control of it by purchasing an option to buy.

The topic of an industrial park isn't a new one for the city council.

Last August, former city manager Ed Craig proposed the idea of buying 300 acres of land that was available on Railroad Avenue and turn it into an industrial park as well as a location for a sports park.

But he said at the time that the only way it could be done was to have a funding source, suggesting an additional 14 cents on the property tax on a 15-year basis.

"If we want an industrial park or a sports complex, we're going to have to pay for it," Craig said. "The only way we can do this is bond it and pay for it, just like we did with the rec center."

The council had rejected the idea of constructing an industrial spec building in Airport Industrial Park that would have been paid for with a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program.

The grant was awarded last April to the Duck River Electric Membership Corp, which would have had to contribute $60,000 in matching funds toward the grant.

However, in order to keep the grant funds, there had to been a definite plan in place for a spec building within 120 days, and that never occurred.

-- City editor John Carney assisted with this report.