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Incentives for 2 companies OK'd
Forsyth approves $268,000 for creation of 157 TurboCare, Grass America jobs
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Published: May 12, 2009
Forsyth County Commissioners last night approved economic development incentives totaling $268,000 for two companies that may create a total of 157 jobs.
The board approved $168,000 for Grass America Inc. in Kernersville, and $100,000 for TurboCare Inc. in Rural Hall.
To get the incentives, Grass America must create 47 jobs and TurboCare must create 110 jobs.
During last night's public hearing some people, including former employees of both companies, cast doubts on granting the incentives or opposed them outright.
Mark Butryn, a former employee of Grass America, accused Austrian supervisors at the company of calling laid-off employees "dumb Americans."
Margaret Butryn, his wife, told how Grass America had sent her husband to Germany for training. Grass America is part of the German-based Wuerth Group.
"If they had enough money to send my husband to Germany and then lay him off, what are they going to do with the money?" she asked.
Another speaker, Brian Lawson, said he wasn't for or against incentives, but wanted to know if former Grass America employees might be among those benefitting from the new jobs.
Jack Fisher told the board to "be careful" about giving "public money to private businesses," and pointed to Winston-Salem's experience with an unfinished baseball stadium and questions about the future of jobs at computer manufacturer Dell Inc.
The vote to approve incentives for Grass America was 4-3, with commissioners Beaufort Bailey, Ted Kaplan and Walter Marshall joining board Chairman Dave Plyler to approve the deal. Voting against were commissioners Debra Conrad, Richard Linville and Gloria Whisenhunt.
Whisenhunt said she opposed the incentives because Kernersville had not given the local company any incentives. She said she was also concerned about what some of the speakers had said during the public hearing.
The vote to approve the TurboCare deal was unanimous.
Steve Spainhour, speaking during the public hearing, said that TurboCare "booted me out the door" after 25 years at the plant and that he was "totally against them coming and asking for money."
TurboCare has to invest $30.73 million to qualify for the incentives in addition to the jobs. Grass America has to make a $15 million investment to qualify.
Plyler said that while everyone doesn't agree with incentives, they can help bring jobs.
"It is important to build the tax base, and the way you do that is to get more jobs and business in the community," he said.
■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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