Locally Owned Industry Grateful For IDA’s Assistance In Search For Property

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

While the Sentinel covers the Industrial Development Authority’s meetings and has reported on critiques of the IDA from several citizens, rarely do we hear directly from industries that have worked with the IDA. The Sentinel had the opportunity to sit down with locally owned and family run Chattanooga Industrial Motors (CIM), to hear about the company’s experience with the IDA.

Mike Howell owns CIM, and Josh Parham (Howell’s son-in-law) is the general manager. Parham handled most of CIM’s interactions with the IDA, and he told the Sentinel, “I have nothing but good things to say about the IDA. They are great to deal with and, in my opinion, should be supported by all in the county who want to see long-term prosperity in our hometown.”

Howell founded CIM in 1989 at what is now the Koch Foods Truck Shop on Highway 11 in Wildwood. CIM moved to its current site at Slygo Road and GA-299 in 1995, but in order to expand operations, the company needs a larger location.

Briefly summarizing the company’s work, Parham said, “We provide industrial electric motor rewinding, sales, and service. We support the larger companies. If the equipment breaks at a company like Trenton Pressing, we pick it up, bring it here, fix it, and return it.”

Parham couldn’t recall how the company first began working with the IDA, but he’s been working with the authority for much of the last five years. Evan Stone (IDA executive director) was the point person with whom Parham primarily communicated.

CIM looked into purchasing neighboring properties to expand the current location, but that wasn’t ideal. Parham said, “We’re landlocked here. We need to grow more, we need to add jobs, and we can’t do that here.”

Over the last five years, the IDA showed CIM properties around Dade County, and the company also looked at properties in Tennessee and Alabama, but Howell’s and Parham’s goal was to stay in Dade County.

Parham said, “I’ve been a resident here most of my life, my wife’s been here her whole life, and my father-in-law, the family, and most of my employees live in this county. I don’t want to be in Chattanooga, Jasper, or Alabama. I plan to lead this business into the next generation, but I can’t do it at this location, so the IDA has come alongside me and helped me find a different location yet stay in my hometown.”

After the IDA acquired the new industrial park location at the north edge of Trenton, CIM purchased the strip along the east side of Highway 11 from the IDA. However, complications arose at this site, the details of which Parham was not interested in going into. Explaining that it was simply a change of plans rather than any sort of dispute, he said, “No industrial project goes 100 percent according to plan, but the IDA had great communication and assistance for us every step of the way.”

CIM then bought land inside the existing industrial park, and they will eventually relocate all operations to this new site. Since the IDA has stated that all remaining land in the current industrial park is considered flood plain or otherwise unsuitable for construction, the Sentinel asked Parham if there are any concerns surrounding CIM’s new land. He answered, “We’ve got all the civil work done, and it’s no longer in the floodplain. We’re very well pleased with it. It’s a much better piece of property than anything we’d seen or our current location.”

The Sentinel asked if the IDA is offering CIM any incentives or other benefits (like the authority often does to attract large companies to the county). Parham said no. At this time, the IDA has simply aided CIM in finding a suitable location.

When asked to expand on his statement about the IDA bringing long-term prosperity to the area, Parham said, “I think it can be a both/and situation. You have some folks who want to see Trenton be a great place to live, but they aren’t concerned about it being a great place to work. I want Trenton to be a great place to work and live.”

He is in favor of the IDA bringing in new industries and helping existing industries expand in order to create good-paying jobs. “I’d like to see wages on average go up in our county, and you’re not going to do that unless you incentivize and bring in industries. The way I see it is the more industrial, good-paying jobs men and women can be employed in, the better the average household will be in our county.”

Parham explained that while CIM is only planning to add about ten jobs, some larger companies bring in hundreds of jobs.

The Sentinel asked if everyone in Dade County should be thinking long-term about balancing the industrial, residential, agricultural, and tourism/hospitality sectors in our county. Parham said, “Absolutely. I’m a big fan of all those categories, but it’s a little short-sighted to neglect industrial and the importance of bringing jobs in. I think tourism, agriculture, and residential are critical—you gotta have all those things—but not to the exclusion of industrial development.”

When asked if he personally has any ideas about what a healthy balance could look like, Parham answered, “That’s over my paygrade. I just know that they’re all important and that’s why we have leaders to sort those issues out.”