Supervisors moves to recover past due rent

Published 9:28 am Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Warren County officials are moving to recover $10,692.34 in back rent on the CalsonicKansei building they say ISA TanTec owes the county for December.

The rent is used to pay off the 15-year, $2 million Mississippi Develoment Authority CAP loan used by the county to buy the Calsonic building in the Ceres Industrial Interplex.

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The Board of Supervisors Monday approved paying the January note, which is due Wednesday, using money from the general fund, and authorized board attorney Blake Teller to meet with Mack Varner, the attorney for the Warren County Port Commission, to collect the money from TanTec.

Repeated attempts to contact TanTec officials about the missed payment were unsuccessful.

“They’ve got nothing to lose, payment-wise, credit-wise, nothing else. We do,” said board president Richard George. “If we don’t pay it, what’s the consequences? We’re in default. We don’t need to be damaging our county’s credit rating. We need to either get prompt payment or eviction.”

George said TanTec officials needed to be reminded about their obligation to the county, adding if they have any problems they need to address them to the board.

“If they’ve got a gripe with us, fine, get your butt up here in front of this table and gripe all you want to, because that’s what we’re here for. But you pay freight while you’re going to do it, and then if there’s something wrong, we’ll ante up,” he said.

“If that’s the kind of industry we’ve recruited, then we might need to look at our recruiting efforts in the future. Anybody can get somebody who don’t pay.”

County administrator John Smith said TanTec in the past has paid its rent by mid-month.

He said he has not talked with anyone at the port commission about any problems involving TanTec that would make them decide not pay the rent on the building.

But regardless of TanTec’s reasons for not paying, he said.

“It’s a debt to the board. We’ve got to pay it and then we’ve got to go collect it.”

ISA TanTec, a German-invested company with facilities in Vietnam and China where raw leather is tanned, vacuum-dried and packed, moved into the 140,000-square-foot former CalsonicKansei building on the north end of Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex, in May 2014. The company sells leather to shoe makers including Timberland, Wolverine, Deckers, Clarks, Merrell, Sperry, Rockport and New Balance.

During ceremonies marking the plant’s opening, CEO Thomas Schneider announced plans to invest $10.1 million and hire 366 people in the first five years of operation.

About John Surratt

John Surratt is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in general studies. He has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer for newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post staff since 2011 and covers city government. He and his wife attend St. Paul Catholic Church and he is a member of the Port City Kiwanis Club.

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