By Dan Harkins
dharkins@hometownnewsol.com
DEBARY - The city's first fishing trip with a new incentive program that pays companies cash to create jobs has landed its first catch.
An established water pump dealer and service provider headquartered in Alabama, Hydra Service Inc., is moving 12 workers from its 15,000-square-foot facility off Maritime Drive in Sanford to a vacant and foreclosed-upon production facility in DeBary's Spring View Commons industrial park.
The company also has pledged to add another 14 workers by 2015. Those workers will each earn their employer $2,000, up to $26,000 from the city's new job opportunity program.
In return, the city gets: workers arriving in the coming months with an average salary of $60,000; the average salary for the new workers will be $50,000.
With Volusia County's average wage at $32,000, these are just the types of workers the city hopes will become residents.
"Of course," Mr. Parrott said, "we certainly hope the folks they hire will live here and participate in our economy."
The county's economic development advisory committee recently approved the incentive deal, Mr. Parrott said. City Council members will consider it at its next meeting on Aug. 1.
This incentive is one of two the city hopes to use in the coming months, as SunRail builds its commuter rail station on the city's south side. The other incentive, through the state's brownfield redevelopment program, can provide even more financial assistance to companies who agree to build or relocate to a facility with at least the "perception of pollution."
Knowing that this company was sold on DeBary after hearing about its incentives, which were advertised on a brochure the city made with Team Volusia, makes the city's efforts seems worthwhile, said Councilman Nick Koval.
"This is the direction we said we wanted to go in," he said before a recent meeting.