1997-04-03-PEDC - Laserfiche WebLink

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285 President Fendley announced that the special meeting was called for consideration of and action on the approval of a presentation to Babcock & Wilcox (B&W). President Fendley said that for the past few weeks, they had been meeting with McDermott concerning the B & W issue and the West Point Mississippi Plant, along with the Paris Plant and their corporate reconstructing of one of those, and possible closure of one of the plants and bring those jobs into one area. Gary Vest has been working on a package that asked both communities to submit to the corporate office next week, and he has been working at State level in getting that information. President Fendley said it was very important that we realize the economic impact of this industry in our community, and triple that affect as it adds millions of dollars to this community. Gary Vest said that Babcox and Wilcox has been a vital part of the Paris community since 1952. It currently employs 550 people at the Paris Plant. The wage scale is much higher than our regional average wage scale. Mr. Vest said last year, B & W had a local budget of 23.5 mil- lion dollars that was broken down, such as payroll benefits - 15 million, building maintenance - $430,000.00, equipment maintenance - $820,000.00, and purchase of local supplies - $1.7 million. Mr. Vest said figuring on a conservative multiplier of four, often in the Chamber of Commerce business economic they use a multiplier of seven, but to be conservative, he had used a multiplier of four, that means that B & W has almost a hundred million dollars economic impact in the Paris and Lamar County area. Mr. Vest said that PEDC's primary goal has been retention and expansion of the existing industry, and they know from experience that it is easier to maintain what we have over recruiting new employers. Mr. Vest said that with the proposed consolidation by McDermott International, Paris has the opportunity to retain the 550 jobs currently at the B & W Plant and possibly add an additional 350 jobs. The downside of this proposed consolidation is that Paris could possibly lose the B & W facility' entirely. Mr. Vest said that in order to obtain the consolidation, we will need to expand the B & W Plant, and at this time, Mr. Vest presented plans for the expansion. From the display of plans, Mr. Vest pointed out from the floor plan several expansions of current buildings, along with construction of a warehouse storage facility approximately 27,000 square feet, and the construction of a new machine shop that would stand independent of the current facility. Mr. Vest said this expansion was mandatory for Paris in order to absorb the current operation at West Point, Mississippi. Mr. Vest said West Point only used about one-half of its existing 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Mr. Vest said with PEDC assisting B&W with the necessary expansion, it would put us on a level playing field with West Point, Mississippi. Because of the cooperation of the Boiler Makers Local and the productivity of the Paris Plant, we think that we could be at a competitive advantage especially coupled with the training being proposed by Paris Junior College and the Enterprise Zone Program adopted by the City of Paris. Mr. Vest said they had involved all political entities both local and state level as part of this presentation, and will utilize all state and local programs to complement our proposal. Mr. Vest said what he was asking for is the authority to go forward with proposal to B & W using all these progrms and resources that are available to us. Resolution No. 97-002, appointing Curtis Yendley and Richard M. Amis to the Paris Economic Development Corporation Executive Committee for the purpose of reviewing and transmitting a proposal regarding Babcock & Wilcox to McDermott International, Inc., and resolving that the Director of Economic Development, Gary Vest, be, and he is hereby, directed to formulate said proposal and submit the same first to the City Attorney of the City of Paris for review and then to the PEDC Executive Committee for review and transmittal, and further resolving that the members of the PEDC Executive Committee be, and they are hereby, directed to report and present a resolution at the next regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Paris Economic Development Corporation regarding the proposal to McDermott International, Inc., was presented. A motion was made by Mike Rhodes, seconded by Barney Bray for approval of the resolutiofi. The motion carried unanimously.