County Board green lights enterprise zone for United Alloy, cleans up its TIF approval process

QUINCY — The Adams County Board unanimously approved an expansion of the Quincy Adams Brown Enterprise zone to accommodate the construction of a $40 million facility for United Alloy.

United Alloy’s current Quincy location is a 24,000 square foot weld-only facility in the Ellington Road industrial park that opened in April 2023. The new site is located just east of its current location, south of Ellington Road. The plan is for United Alloy to break ground by 2025 and construct a 200,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility, creating at least 100 new jobs.

The 10-year property tax abatement, which also includes a sales tax exemption on construction materials, means the company will save about $3.5 million in taxes over the deal’s term. The company would then begin paying property taxes at the end of the 10 years.

United Alloy will enter into a memo of understanding for the Enterprise Zone program and have to make annual reports on its employment and revenue numbers during the abatement period.

County Board member Tim Finlay (R-District 5) said his constituents who live near Ellington Road had concerns about lighting and noise from the new facility.

Quincy City Planner Chuck Bevelheimer was in attendance and said he had also met with some neighbors, saying the overall footprint of the site is 60 acres and plans for the exact location of the building on the property have not yet been finalized.

“The neighbors to the north and east in the rural subdivision have made it clear to us that they want us to be mindful of the impact that light would have on their properties,” Bevelheimer said. “We told them we’d look at that as part of the site plan review, and then we’ll invite them to the meetings. So that’s the best we could do without knowing where the site’s going to be.”

The Board also gave ex post facto approval to the proposed South TIF project in Quincy’s calftown district and to County Board Chairman Kent Snider to serve as the County’s representative on the Joint Review Board that oversees the Tax Increment Financing program.

Snider designated Adams County Supervisor of Assessments Georgene Zimmerman to represent the County Board at the JRB meeting where the TIF was approved by all local taxing bodies except the Quincy Park District because there was a County Board meeting held at the same time as that meeting.

But the County had no formal documentation of Snider as its JRB representative, so these actions were seen “symbolic” according to County Board member Ryan Hinkamper (R-District 2).

Assistant State’s Attorney Todd Eyler is also working on a revision to the County Code to ensure the full County Board would vote on all future TIF actions, but that revision was not voted on as part of Tuesday night’s agenda.

The Quincy City Council has tabled multiple votes on the issue and it has another vote scheduled at its May 20 meeting to finalize the program.

The County Board approved the resolution supporting TIF South by a 17-0-1 vote. Finance Committee Chairman Bret Austin (R-District 1), who owns property in the proposed zone and has been the most vocal proponent of the TIF expansion, abstained.

Barb Fletcher (R-District 2), Mark Dietrich (R-District 3) and Theresa Bockhold (R-District 7) were absent.

The County Board also approved the creation of a subcommittee to oversee the implementation of a new HVAC system for the Courthouse and has received two RFP’s on engineering for the project.

In other business, board members:

• Approved 3.5 percent annual raises for the next four years for the Adams County coroner and Adams County circuit clerk to go into effect in FY 2025-26 after the 2024 election.
• Approved a $625,000 expenditure from the Health Department’s budget to recruit and retain nurses.
• Awarded a $184,000 contract to Diamond Construction of Quincy for a chip seal coat project on County Highway 18 (N 2600th Avenue) and County Highway 14 (E 2903rd Lane).
• Awarded a nearly $195,000 contract to Laverdiere Construction of Macomb for three at-grade railroad crossings roadway profile adjustment with the necessary embankment, culvert installation and aggregate surface course on TR 472, TR 35 & TR 19, located northeast of La Prairie.
• Awarded a $561,500 contract to A.C. Pavement Striping for projects on County Highway 24 (E 2400th Street) and County Highway 14 (E 2903rd Lane).
• Awarded a $270,00 contract to County Contractors of Quincy for the removal and replacement of the existing deck beams on a bridge located on Turtle Lake Road, 2.5 miles south of Quincy.