An industry's plans to expand its operations in the Winchester Industrial Park were rejected by the Winchester-Clark County Industrial Development Authority at its monthly meeting earlier this week.
The 4-2 vote denying Champion Polymer its request to expand operations into a lease building owned by Watson Building Inc. came with little discussion following a closed session of the authority to discuss industrial prospects.
Ray Watson, president of Watson Building, which owns the spec building, and representatives of Champion Polymer met with authority members in the closed session.
Champion Polymer was seeking to expand its plastic recycling operations into the building, which is adjacent to another one it occupies. One-half the building's 40,000 square feet would have been used for storage and the other half for preprocessing. The firm grinds and bales recycled plastics for use by Infiltrator Systems Inc. Champion is as division of Infiltrator.
Following the closed session, authority Chairman Jim Coleman moved that Champion's plans be approved. The motion was seconded by Tom Hiles. Coleman and Hiles voted in favor of the motion. Ron Tierney, Steve Penn, Bill James and Arthur "Whitey" Walson voted against the motion.
The four indicated their "no" vote was based on the fact that it would have created only four new jobs on the 9.1-acre site, noting the authority's goal is 10 jobs per acre.
Infiltrator and Champion currently occupy 29.4 acres in the Industrial Park, with Infiltrator employing approximately 240 workers and Champion 20. The proposed expansion by Champion would have pushed the two firms' total acreage here to 38.45.
Phil Kerrick, director of economic development, labeled it a "tough decision," adding that it had been a new company wanting to locate here and create only four jobs "we would probably say 'no.'" However, he said, "for an existing company to expand that already has three operations in the park ... maybe they could have done a better job in presenting the project, because we don't know what the impact is going to be on existing operations." Winchester (Kentucky) Sun