TEG
TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2016
T O
V V V
T I F
O R
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
N O T
T O
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
V V V
Good Evening
VVV
Stay safe,
deputies.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
T I F
CITY COMMISSIONERS TO
VOTE ON TIP FINANCING
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
The much-debated Emporia
Pavilions project is on Wednesday
evening’s city commission agenda.
Wednesday night commissioners will decide if the Emporia Pavilions project will receive tax incremental financing. The public
hearing, set in early March, is
mandated by state law and will
have to receive at least four votes
to be approved.
If the TIF financing passes,
the applicant, Emporia Land
Development LLC, represented
by Spencer Thomson, a commercial real estate attorney, has
the ability to proceed with constructing the project knowing
the project has a tax increment financing agreement with the city.
However, they have also asked
for alternative financing, which
will require further approval.
Emporia Land Development
recently changed their TIF request, reducing the TIF financing from $6.1 million to about $3
million and asking for about $3
million in financing from a community improvement district
(CID) overlay, which would add
one cent of additional sales tax
imposed only on the shops within
the development.
If approved, Emporia Land Development would still have to get
approval for the CID financing.
Witt estimated the CID approval could happen by late June or
early July. While the TIF would
be approved, Emporia Land Development would not have everything financially in order to proceed with the rest of the project
until the CID process is complete.
However, Jim Witt, assistant
city manager, said: “But at least
they will have the TIF hurdle
cleared, and that’s been the biggest hurdle to date.”
Emporia Land Development
has worked on getting TIF ap-
proved since January of 2014.
“They made substantial revisions to the type of uses they are
going to locate on 24th ... they
came back with the revised application last July and here we are at
the final step in the TIF process.”
said Witt. “The bottom line is
this, tomorrow is the final step in
the TIF process, which was started back in January 2014, revised
in 2015, this is the final night.”
If the proposal does not pass,
Emporia Land Development
would have to decide if they want
to continue the project without
TIF financing.
“We’re not giving Emporia
Land Development any money;
we’re not writing them a check,”
said Witt.
Witt explained, in TIF projects, a developer improves land,
leaving the land with a new value
and higher taxes. The difference
between the old tax value and the
new value goes to pay developer
costs for items such as utilities,
street improvements and drain-
age until those are paid off. In
this TIF, the developer also has
requested one-half of the city
sales tax and the city share of the
county’s sales tax for sales made
on the site.
“… we don’t lose any taxes we
are currently collecting, but we
don’t gain any,” said Witt.
There have been no solid contracts for the stores that would
be a part of the development but
there have been letters of intent
from retailers who would like to
come to Emporia.
At a commission meeting in
early March, Thomson got into a
heated discussion with Commissioner Steve Harmon regarding
the project.
“He made it clear he wouldn’t
vote for it under any circumstances,” said Thomson. “It’s been that
way from day one … He stated
public purpose is that he thinks
it is not wanted by the neighbors
in that area and that’s his stated
Please see Pavilion, Page 3
‘RICKY NELSON
REMEMBERED’
CELEBRATES THE LIFE
OF A PERFORMER
By John Robinson
[email protected]
The Granada Theatre will be
the site to celebrate the life of
Ricky Nelson with “Ricky Nelson
Remembered” at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The show headlines Ricky Nelson’s sons, Gunnar and Matthew
Nelson, who will be performing
some of their father’s hit songs
such as “Hello Mary Lou,” “Travelin’ Man” and “Garden Party.”
“Our ‘Ricky Nelson Remembered’ show is a true labor of
love,” said Gunnar Nelson in an
email. “It’s the show that we want
to do ... not the show that we have ing life, as the band Nelson they
to do.”
reached the top of the U.S. BillGunnar and Matthew Nelson
are no strangers to the performPlease see Nelson, Page 3
LYON COUNTY WELCOMES NEW DEPUTIES
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office recently hired three new deputies.
According to Undersheriff John
Koelsch there were four openings
for deputies; the office had a full
staff for a long time, however over
the past year there has been one retirement and three other deputies
left.
Tera Titus is the first female
road deputy hired by the Lyon
County Sheriff’s office. Titus joined
the sheriff’s office April 11 after
working with the Emporia Police
Department.
Titus credits the late Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels
with sparking her interest in law
enforcement.
“He always stopped in Virgil and
talked to us kids that were playing
and he was like ‘Oh, one day when
you’re old enough you can ride with
me,’ because I was fairly young at
that time. I didn’t get a chance to
ride with him after that unfortunate
event … It was that time period that
I realized that law enforcement is
what I wanted to go after — finish
high school, went to college, got a
degree, got old enough and applied
with the Emporia Police Department and got hired.”
“I was ready to get back out
Please see Deputies, Page 3
VOL. 124, NO. 249
CATHRYNE SCHARTON/GAZETTE
Deputies Tera Titus and Justin Carr pictured and Charles Moore, not pictured, were recently hired as a sher