Columbus City Council last night approved a 10-year, 75 percent property-tax abatement for a rubber products firm that plans to open a manufacturing center at an old warehouse in Marion Franklin.
RM Biltrite and Watkins Road LLC plan to build the facility in the 16 hundred block of Watkins Road, creating 40 new jobs. Interim Columbus Development Director Mike Stevens says Columbus City Schools will get some money out of the deal:
Stevens says district approval of the project is not needed. Council also approved spending 520 thousand dollars in voter-approved bond money to improve sidewalks on portions of Duxberry Avenue and McGuffey Road. Sponsoring Council member Shayla Favor says work begins in November:
Eleven-year-old Elizabeth Robertson-Rutland died last month after being hit by two vehicles while walking to Sherwood Middle School on a stretch McNaughten Road that doesn’t have sidewalks. Her family has hired a law firm to consider its legal options.
