Portsmouth council takes new look at concrete plant, granary

The City Council recently clawed its way out of an $11.7 million budget hole, pointing fingers at a lack of tax revenue and eventually raising taxes by 3 cents.
Why, then, did the council reject plans for a HZS50 concrete batching plant Zambia that could bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Some say it’s a misunderstanding, that council members don’t fully understand the project. Others – including Jim Salmons, president of the company that wants to build the plant – say the council is knowingly turning down a boon for the city.
“I thought that it was a no-brainer,” Salmons said. “It was definitely more revenue and jobs for the city, and I thought that was what the city needed.”
Portsmouth council takes new look at concrete plant, granary
In 2010, Salmons’ company, PER Properties, purchased 16.5 acres from the Portsmouth Port and Industrial Commission. It initially proposed a granary and temporary concrete plant, which would have helped the company build the concrete foundation for its work site, buildings and equipment.
But as the company got going, Salmons said he concluded a permanent concrete plant was a better business opportunity.
But the council didn’t go for it. In 2013, it said no, citing concerns about noise, dust, traffic and other negative impacts on the surrounding communities near Cradock and Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. The proposal also conflicted with the city’s zoning ordinance, which prohibited new HZS25 concrete batching plant Indonesia.
Neither the granary nor the concrete plant has been built yet, partly because the Environmental Protection Agency is still cleaning up a federal Superfund site on the spot. Yet Friday, PER Properties was humming with activity.
A water truck hosed down the sand-covered ground to prevent dust, and loaders in the middle of the site dropped a mixture of crushed stones and sand into a sifting machine. Concrete was being crushed for the granary’s foundation; a mound near the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge pressed down the earth to make the land underneath it solid.
Salmons envisions eight silos along with tanks, storage buildings and handling equipment for the granary. In a separate building, the permanent concrete plant would have a twin-shaft mixer creating high-quality concrete strong enough for bridge beams.
PER Properties has pledged to invest at least $3.5 million, and Salmons said the company has already spent $1 million to clean up the concrete structures they found underground. If Portsmouth won’t work with him, Salmons said, he will have to look for another city for the concrete plant, although the granary would stay.
Salmons said the granary and the plant would generate roughly $600,000 in tax revenue and more than 35 jobs. He said he didn’t know what the split in tax revenue between the two entities would be, but that he thought the granary would bring in more revenue than the concrete plant.
The company initially projected $60,000 in tax revenue and 35 jobs. This figure did not include all sources of revenue, Salmons said.
Members of People for Portsmouth, a political action committee trying to find candidates for the 2016 election, want the plant. At a recent meeting, real estate developer John P. Wright said he didn’t understand how the cash-strapped city could reject tax revenue, and he started a petition on the spot.
The council will make a final decision Tuesday. At a recent meeting, some members continued to criticize the project. Mayor Kenny Wright said he didn’t like how the proposal has changed, and Councilman Mark Whitaker suggested the shift means the original land sale was “undervalued” and wondered about renegotiating.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Psimas called it the “most absurd meeting.”
“So we should renegotiate the terms of something we sold five years ago?” she said. “You don’t do that. The contract was already secured in 2010.”
Walking away from $600,000 in revenue is “ludicrous,” Psimas said.
Councilman Bill Moody said that to his knowledge, no one near the HZS50 concrete mixing plant Russia site has complained. In fact, there are two other concrete facilities near PER Properties.
“The concrete operation would be enclosed, so all safeguards were there” in the proposal, he said. “And we have four members of council that have turned into an economic-development wrecking machine.”
Steve Heretick, an attorney representing Salmons, said he thinks the council saw the use permit for concrete and thought the facility was completely diverging from the granary plan. It isn’t, he said.
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