News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Cookeville Industrial Board continues to monitor SAIC’s progress after extending its job compliance agreement with the city.
Chairman Bob Bell said the arrangement to have 300 technical employees by last year was made difficult by the pandemic. The extension was set to end this month, but Bell said the company had been working diligently to meet that goal.
“The January/February timeframe when they present their annual report, every PILOT has a report that goes in every year,” Bell said. “We reviewed that and deemed that they were making adequate progress.”
Bell said the requirement is part of a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) incentive package with the city. He said the agreement includes certain benchmarks for the company to gain tax breaks.
Bell said they still value the company and want them to continue to grow more jobs in town. He said the board wants to do what it can to help SAIC continue that strong growth.
“I think we’ve only done one formal extension, when you do those it’s a multi-year agreement and that extension reaches out over several years,” Bell said. “And it basically just says here’s what we originally planned, now we’re thinking more about this. And we’ll look at this each year and see how we’re doing.”
