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Mayor says city not on hook
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| By: Theron Fly |
December 04, 2012 |
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The demise of the Twin Creeks project in Senatobia is raising concern that the city could be held responsible for financial losses, but Senatobia Mayor Alan Callicott insists that is not the case.
"We're just the middle guy," Callicott said. "We're the pass-through."
Callicott said that state funding for the facility and infrastructure, were passed on to Twin Creeks through the City of Senatobia. The return funding from Twin Creeks to the State of Mississippi would be passed through the City as well.
According to Callicott, the City of Senatobia is not on the hook to repay anything to the state. If anything, Callicott said, the State of Mississippi would be the government body on the hook.
"The plus side of that is that when the company and the state come to a resolution, we will be able to put someone in the building," Callicott said.
Callicott said that his understanding is that the city is under no threat of a financial bind. He said that no small community could support that building on its own. The city may eventually end up cutting grass and maintaining the landscaping at the facility.
For now, the Twin Creeks equipment is still sitting inside the building, according to Callicott. Reports surfaced last week that Twin Creeks had sold its assets to a company in New Hampshire.
The Democrat has confirmed that a hearing scheduled for Dec. 4 in Grenada between the state and Twin Creeks had been "postponed indefinitely."
Callicott said that the Mississippi Development Authority and Twin Creeks are still trying to reach an agreement.
"I think there was a lot of good faith on all sides and it's just unfortunate," Callicott said. "There's no fault of ours."
A fraud allegation is contained in a lawsuit Mississippi officials filed against the company in Tate County Chancery Court, in which the state demands damages related to alleged fraud in addition to the millions the company received in state aid.
"Some are alleging fraud, but I just don't see it," Callicott said.
"The money that Twin Creeks spent on scholarships at Northwest Mississippi Community College and the University of Mississippi, and the money spent on salaries and travel were not state money. It was from their investors," Callicott said. "The money that the State of Mississippi spent is in the building and the infrastructure. When the two sides reach a resolution, the state will have a nice facility here."
With a potential resolution, Callicott said that he is confident that the state will be able to market the facility and that the community will be receiving the big influx of new jobs that it has, for so long, desired.
"If the intent was to defraud the state, they didn't do a good job of it, because they didn't get anything," Callicott said.
When the company announced plans to build a solar panel manufacturing facility in Senatobia in April 2010, residents were excited about the planned creation of more than 500 jobs over a five year period. Instead, all that materialized was an 85,000 square foot facility that currently sits nearly completely empty.
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©The Democrat 2013
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Right Wing Conservative |
Dec, 07 2012 |
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Its just a shame that our hard earn tax money paid for a large chunk of this. Kinda like Cylindra. That's why government bailouts are just wrong. They don't work.
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