Dec. 7—The Vigo County Council on Tuesday granted Saturn Petcare Inc. full, 10-year full tax abatements for a plant expansion and new equipment for its facility in Vigo County Industrial Park II.

Saturn plans to add 50 new full-time jobs with benefits and payroll totaling $4.8 million, or $96,000 per new employee in benefits and salary.

Additionally the company plans to add $42 million in new equipment and expand its plant with an $8 million freezer warehouse.

The company has said it will retain 163 workers, and 36 part-time employees with an annual payroll of $13.7 million.

The company expects to start work on the expansion project in the third quarter of 2023 and complete it in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The council voted 6-1 on both a 10-year real property and a 10-year personal property tax abatement for Saturn Petcare. Councilman Todd Thacker voted against both abatements.

Richard J. Shagley II, a Terre Haute attorney representing Petcare, said the company, at the request of the council, amended its abatement resolutions "and has done something to my knowledge that has never been done in Vigo County. That includes both the city and county abatements.

"To show their commitment to use local labor, they have included not only in the resolution but in [a form that shows information on the proposed project and an estimate of costs, jobs created used by the council to determine future compliance) a statement using local contractors of Freitag-Weinhardt (a mechanical contractor] and Sycamore Engineering," Shagley said.

The company attorney said the statement shows the importance of the production plant for Vigo County and Saturn Petcare's desire to grow in Vigo County. He noted the presence of Maarten Moog, president/CEO at Saturn Petcare, who attended the council meeting from New Jersey, and Christian Schröder, a board member of Heristo group, parent company of Saturn Petcare, who attended from Germany.

Thacker proposed the council, instead of adopting a 10-year full tax abatement to instead adopt a standard tax abatement that is gradually decreased over a 10 year period. That would still provide tax savings to the company, but increase the county's tax collections during the abatement period by about $2.5 million.

Thacker said that would match other projects as far as abatement, such as for the $50 million expansion for Great Dane.

Shagley said the company is following a precedent set by the council in a previous tax abatement for Steel Dynamics Inc., which received a 10-year full tax abatement.

Council President Aaron Loudermilk said the council requested the labor statement from Saturn Petcare in exchange for the 10-year full tax abatement, noting the council was "burned" on a previous tax abatement for SDI as far as the majority use of local labor on its $230 million expansion.

Loudermilk said the council should uphold its statement that it would support the abatement if a local labor statement was included.

Loudermilk said the council should include such statements in future abatements.

Councilwoman Marie Theisz agreed, noting the council has been working on standards for abatements going forward and said labor agreements should be included.

In a public hearing prior to the vote, Jason King, business representative for the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters, said he would like to see the council adopt tiered standards for tax abatements and include percentages for labor used within certain miles of a project in an effort to employ labor from Indiana, Illinois and/or Kentucky.

Prior to the vote on the abatements, Thacker again sought support for a standard tax abatement.

"I think it is a little irony here," Thacker said. "I am not up for re-election and I am not campaigning, but I am looking at saving the county $2.5 million by doing a standard tax abatement of 10 years.

"That is part of our job as fiscal [body] is to make sure we have enough tax dollars. I know some of us has campaigned on the fact that we are going to be fiscally conservative and we are going to watch what the tax spending is and here I am probably the most liberal one on the [council] and I am the one wanting" a standard abatement, he said.

Thacker noted the company in a 2019 project did not use local labor. However, Thacker said he is confident that Andy Volkl, Saturn Petcare's new chief operating officer, will ensure the project expansion will use local labor.

He added supports the company's expansion. "That is great, but at the same time, even at a standard tax abatement, that is a nice compromise," he said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter @TribStarHoward.