Albany Long-Term Financial Planning Committee recommends approving job fund grants

ALBANY — The joint Albany City Commission/Albany Utility Board Long-Term Financial Planning Committee voted unanimously Thursday to approve some $800,000 in grants from the city’s Job Investment Fund for Mars Chocolate North America and Webstaurant.

The funding, which is part of the credit returned to the city’s Utility Board by the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, was set aside by the City Commission to help lure industry into the community. Criteria for grant applications were established by the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission, and that body’s president, Justin Strickland, made the presentation before the Long-Term Financial Planning Committee on Thursday.

Strickland told committee members Mars Chocolate’s $14 million investment in developing its goodnessknows snack line surpassed the Job Investment Fund’s minimum criteria for capital investment ($10 million), while Webstaurant earned three “points” by investing $10 million and creating more than 200 jobs.

Each point on the funding scale entitles businesses to apply for $200,000 in grant money.

“This was a competitive process, and Mars could have established this (snack) line anywhere in the world,” Strickland told the committee. “That they built it here further established the company in our community.”

City Commissioner Bob Langstaff, who is a LTFPC board member, said bringing Webstaurant into the community is a “coup” for Southwest Georgia.

“You look at the investment and the jobs created, and that’s going to have a big impact,” Langstaff said. “But Webstaurant also ships restaurant equipment all over the world, so that’s going to solidify our ties with the UPS (air) presence in the community.”

City Commissioner B.J. Fletcher, also a board member, said there is no question that Webstaurant made the capital investment in the community.

“You look at $10 million, and that’s a lot of money,” Fletcher said. “But if these board members had taken a tour of the facility, I don’t think there would have been any doubt about the money they invested.”

LTFPC Chairman Tommie Postell asked city Finance Director Derrick Brown how much money is now in the Job Investment Fund. Brown told the board the fund now has “$20 million and some change.”

With the Long-Term Financial Planning Committee’s votes, a recommendation to approve a $200,000 grant for Mars Chocolate and $600,000 for Webstaurant will be forwarded to the Albany City Commission. City Manager Sharon Subadan said the matter is expected to come before the commission at its Sept. 13 meeting.

The LTFPC had previously granted $200,000 from the Job Investment Fund to Thrush Aircraft, which is in the process of adding 100 new jobs. Strickland said the company had already added 80 of those jobs.