The Durant Industrial Authority held its monthly meeting Tuesday and the authority discussed issues concerning businesses and property costs in the city.
The authority decided to consult with commercial property assessors to better price property in the city for use by businesses and companies.
This was spurred on because of recent inquiries on property in Durant. In the past Tommy Kramer said the answer “it’s negotiable” would suffice before any official discussions.
Now people want to know the price before beginning negotiation to begin with. To give a reasonable starting price, the authority members agreed that an assessor is needed.
The authority also discussed implementing a new Durant Industrial Authority Industrial Park Covenants to regulate the appearance of companies in the Durant industrial parks.
This would prevent companies from doing things such as dumping piles of garbage on their lawns or burning material on their lawns.
The issue still being discussed concerning the covenants is how to enforce them. According to Jim Dunegan, the city cannot fully enforce this yet.
Ways to enable the city to enforce this new rule are being looked into.
One Durant business is looking to upgrade or move from Durant. Although no authority members would say what business is in question, they discussed ways to keep it in Durant.
The business employs 28 people in Durant and the authority does not want to lose those jobs. The requests of the business were discussed and members agreed some could not be met.
The authority then brainstormed to come up with alternate solutions to present to the company. The authority members agreed that their proposal is surely better than others that could be offered and will present it to the business promptly.
Also discussed in the meeting were businesses underway in Durant. Tommy Kramer said that there will be five new businesses near Walmart and Lowe’s by 2015.
He said CVS started demolition on its site Monday and the Tile Shop has begun receiving supplies and will soon begin building a manufacturing plant on its site.
Kramer also gave a short presentation on the Sterling III Pipeline in the area. He said the introduction of pipeline workers has been good for area business.
“They are filling every RV Park in the area,” said Kramer.
He said that the workers are doing a great amount of shopping in local stores as well.
It was also reported that Bob’s Family Restaurant was full of pipeline workers last week. The company itself is also buying supplies and services from local businesses.
Kramer said that there are about 100 workers here and another 200 to come.
The Durant Economic Development Council did not meet this month but is expected to continue regular meetings in May.
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