The Tyrone Area School Board in its work session last night, discussed the possibility of taking part in Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zones in the Borough of Tyrone.
\nThe properties that would be part of the KOEZ are the Westvaco properties and the undeveloped portion of the Dixon property in the Tyrone Industrial Park.
\n\u201cThis is nothing but a positive for the community,\u201d said Luther Laird to his fellow board members. \u201cIf we can get jobs back, the positives will outweigh what we lose in taxes.\u201d
\nThe proposal in front of the board at next week\u2019s meeting is to grant an authorization to a subzone of the Southern Alleghenies Keystone Opportunity Zone\/Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone. This grant would erase property taxes between January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2008.
\nTyrone School District business manager Cathy Peachey told the board what the district would lose in property taxes.
\n\u201cWe would give up $60,494.41 per year at the Westvaco properties and $1,200 per year from the Dixon properties,\u201d Peachey reported to the board. \u201cThe board feels this is a chance to support and bring industry back to the community. The district encourages growth and development in the community. The board feels that this is a way they can help with this. ABCD was hopeful in the meeting they had with us that something would go in the old Westvaco. This could be a stepping stone to making that happen.\u201d
\nGiving up taxes for five years to spur growth isn\u2019t a complete loss for the school district.
\n\u201cWe will receive wage taxes from the people who get jobs,\u201d said Peachey. \u201cIf the mill remains closed, I feel sure that Westvaco would ask for a reassessment of taxes that would probably cost us 50 percent of the revenues we receive now. This is one way that we can get a return out of an easement.\u201d
\nBoard member Brian Bressler said, \u201cThis is nothing but a positive move.\u201d
\nFor a KOEZ to be granted there needs to be approval from the county commissioners, school board and Tyrone borough council. It has been discussed by the commissioners in their meeting last week, and they said they would be in favor of a KOEZ, and it will be on the agenda of next Monday\u2019s Tyrone Borough Council meeting.
\nAt the most recent meeting of Tyrone Borough Council, Mayor Pat Stoner noted that she has been a proponent of the KOEZ for the Westvaco and Dixon properties.
\n\u201cIt gives us a chance to be competitive,\u201d the mayor said at Monday\u2019s meeting. \u201cWe have talked with them (ABCD). When the time comes to take appropriate action, we will probably do it. We as a borough can\u2019t compete when you have someone two miles down the road who has a KOEZ.\u201d
\nThe board also discussed numerous personnel decisions that will be voted on next week. The Tyrone School Board will meet in its regular session Tuesday night at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tyrone Area School Board in its work session last night, discussed the possibility of taking part in Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zones in the Borough of Tyrone. The properties that would be part of the KOEZ are the Westvaco properties and the undeveloped portion of the Dixon property in the Tyrone Industrial Park. \u201cThis is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}