City to provide incentives to keep Briggs open

Poplar Bluff City Council members will vote Jan. 21 on incentives promised nearly a year ago to keep the local Briggs & Stratton factory open.

The incentives will include the extension of a 90% discount in real property taxes, and the addition of a discount on personal property taxes that would be assessed against $28 million in equipment, according to discussion Monday by council members.

Corporate officials met with local leaders in February 2019 to discuss whether the Poplar Bluff or Murray, Kentucky, factories would be closed. Participants were required at that time to sign confidentiality agreements, city manager Mark Massingham said. The plant that remained open would not only keep its current jobs, but gain additional jobs from the other’s closure.

“We had to come up with some incentives to keep them in Poplar Bluff,” Massingham explained, adding that Spire gas company, and Municipal Utilities also contributed to the effort. “Instead of losing 500 jobs, we kept those and are going to gain 350-400 jobs.”

In August, the company announced the closure of the Kentucky facility after more than three decades as Briggs consolidated operations that manufacture small vertical-shaft engines. The Kentucky plant employed 630 people at the time, and was expected to close by the fall of 2020. Employees were to be given an opportunity to relocate to Poplar Bluff.

Poplar Bluff is expected to see 130 new jobs over the next 12 months, with around 140-150 additional jobs in year two, according to information released at the time.

As part of the incentives for Briggs, the city will issue taxable industrial revenue bonds in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed $28.9 million to finance a project for the company.

The city is not paying for the bonds, Massingham said. The company will make the bond payments.

These are Chapter 100 bonds, done under state statute, and something the city has done for Briggs in the past, he said.

The city is just the facilitator, said council member at-large Ron Black.

Council members are expected to discuss the matter again at the Jan. 21 and Feb. 3 council meetings.

More information is expected at that time, according to the discussion.

Some items are still considered confidential until additional action is taken by the city, officials said.

In other business, the council:

• Discussed a grant application to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to be filed on behalf of the park department. A request for $50,000 would cover 50% of the costs to add playground equipment at Hillcrest and Link parks. The item was moved to the Jan. 21 voting session.

• Discussed an application by the city to annex Shelby Road Phase II into the city limits. This would include only the road itself. Resident Jim Chrisman asked how much tax revenue would be brought by the annexation and why the city was creating a 261-acre hole of county property within city boundaries. Massingham said no tax revenue would be generated by annexing the road, because it is owned by the city. The owner of the 261-acres between Shelby Road Phase II and Roxy Road, has been contacted about annexing into the city, Massingham said, and seems open to the idea. The item was moved to the Jan. 21 voting session.

• Discussed annexing property at 3547 N. Westwood Blvd., owned by Fellowship General Baptist Church, into the city, at the church’s request. The item was moved to the Jan. 21 voting session. Citing a conflict of interest, council member at-large Ron Black did not participate in the discussion or vote.

• Voted to rezone property at 462 N. Main St. from RD-1 residential duplex to O-1 office professional. Applicant is the Liszewski Law Firm.