Tax exemptions to be considered for four companies at the next Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting will include an application from Simpson Dura-Vent that concedes the custom flues and vents manufacturer plans to end operations at Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex in the later half of next year.

Meeting informally Thursday, supervisors indicated the amount of revenue the county would forgo is not great and that everything that could be done to encourage the company to stay should be considered.

“To me, it’s worth giving them that exemption and maybe they’ll stay a little longer,” said District 1 Supervisor David McDonald.

‘To me, it’s worth giving them that exemption and maybe they’ll stay a little longer.’DAVID MCDONALDDISTRICT 1 SUPERVISORThe exemptions created by state law but requiring local approval are designed to encourage employers to upgrade equipment, expand and add jobs. City and county levies may be waived, but not the millage due to schools.

County Tax Assessor Richard Holland briefed the board on the applications. In addition to Simpson Dura-Vent, Cooper Lighting, Cappaert Manufactured Housing, Falco Chemical Inc. and its subsidiary company PolyVulc U.S.A. Inc. all applied.

In its application, Simpson Dura-Vent states employee numbers were reduced to 173 at the end of 2007 due to poor economic conditions. As many as 350 jobs had once been filled at the plant. The company is applying for exemptions on purchases totalling $6,163,826 in 2006 and 2007, but Holland said the total would be amended and lowered before the board of supervisors vote on it.

“There may not be but about 10 percent of that equipment left there. The majority of it is gone,” he said. “We’ll rework those numbers by the next meeting.”

The Simpson Dura-Vent application states the plant additions will enhance efficiency and provide economic opportunities should economic conditions allow for renewed operations in the future. Based in Vacaville, Calif., Simpson Dura-Vent announced in January it was planning to end manufacturing of its products in Warren County due to a lagging real estate market and the expansion of its California plant.

McDonald said the actual cost to the county if it approved a full exemption to Simpson Dura-Vent would be about $32,055 in county taxes, but with equipment removed, the exemption could be as little as $3,200.

The board does not take official actions in its Thursday sessions. It also reviewed a request by the Vicksburg Warren Athletic Association for $1,700 for new bases for baseball fields at Culkin as well as a gate on the restrooms, which repeatedly have been vandalized and a proposed resolution to pay $10,000 toward Independence Day activities in Vicksburg.