In this special Christmas Day edition of Business Cheetah, I’d like to take a moment to recognize some of the honorable members of our community who give of their time and risk their lives, not just during the holidays but throughout the year.
They are volunteer firefighters.
Like the name suggests, volunteer firefighters are paid nothing for their work. They can be stirred at 2 a.m., or pulled away from their child’s ballgame, all to help a neighbor in desperate need.
These firefighters come to mind after we covered two devastating house fires on Tuesday. One was at 8 a.m. near the county line in the Short Mountain area. The other was in the afternoon in the Newtown area.
Volunteers with Centertown and North Warren Fire Departments responded to both calls. There were eight volunteers who worked both fires.
I talked to Centertown deputy chief Phillip Prater on Thursday and he told me it was a grueling day. I know Phillip is one who doesn’t want his name in the paper, but I’ll tell you he worked more than 12 hours that day battling those two fires and several of his volunteers did too.
“It’s hard when you have to take Christmas presents out of someone’s burning home, but we were able to salvage some items,” said Phillip when asked about the difficulty of fighting fires this time of year.
These firefighters pay for their own gas and often pay for their own training. And because of the time commitments and the unknown nature of when they might be pressed into action, finding volunteers can be as hard as finding how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
“A problem that’s plaguing us countywide is the shortage of manpower,” said Phillip. “People can’t get away from work and can’t find the time to volunteer.”
I’d like to take this time to thank volunteer firefighters for all they mean to our community throughout the year.

Brook Holmes new mall manager

One of McMinnville’s premier shopping destinations has new leadership. Brook Holmes has been named the manager of Three Star Mall. Her first day was Monday.
“Part of my responsibility is to lease out the empty spaces and fill them with stores,” said Brook. “I have some ideas. I’ve made some contacts and have some feelers out there.”
Brook comes to the mall after working at Main Street McMinnville, an organization devoted to the health of downtown merchants. Main Street McMinnville works to plan downtown events and is responsible for the overall well-being of the downtown area.
A mall manager is very similar. Brook is concerned about the vitality of every store in the mall and she’ll be in charge of planning events with a grandiose center stage at her disposal.
“My job is to get bodies in the building,” said Brook. “We’ll be adding some events in the future and trying to have something here at least monthly. One thing that would have been great to do is to have nonprofits here wrapping Christmas presents, but it’s too late to do that for this year.”
Brook is also taking the mall into the age of social media. She wants to get more followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pintrest. She also plans to offer text message alerts to notify shoppers of major sales or upcoming events.
The mall has some prime retail space available such as the old Bookland location, the old Radio Shack, the old cookie shop, and the old jewelry store. If you’d like to inquire about retail space at the mall, Brook can be reached at 473-1515.

Do we need more jobs?

A couple weeks ago, a gentleman asked me if there was any talk of Warren County landing another industry. It was the first time I’ve heard that question in probably a year.
That’s because manufacturing jobs seem to be as prevalent as double cheeseburgers in Warren County with many local plants continually seeking workers. An ad in our lovely Southern Standard shows Yorozu is looking for help right now and starting employees at $12.50 an hour. That’s not bad.
The pendulum has swung in the other direction and I rarely hear of people who need a job. What I hear about are companies seeking dependable workers.
The latest unemployment figures sent Thursday by the state show Warren County unemployment at a low, low 4.4 percent for November. We are among 35 counties in Tennessee with an unemployment rate lower than 5 percent. Overall, the state’s unemployment rate is 4.8 percent.
If you look at statistics for the nation, there’s a glut of available industrial jobs. In October, there were 322,000 open manufacturing jobs across America, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
For companies which may be seeking a home in Warren County, we do have several available buildings. The Industrial Development Board is in the process of reclaiming ownership of the old Simpkins Energy building on Magness Drive, which has 15,000 square feet. There’s also the Pine Hill Plastics building near Dibrell which has nearly 30,000 square feet and the old S&S Industries building near Morrison with 44,000 square feet. That’s a sampling.

Help for downtown buildings

If you’ve noticed the Walling Arcade building in downtown McMinnville on Spring Street, it’s looking more like a daisy. After years of intense dilapidation, Lee and Joyce Cooper purchased the building and began renovation efforts.
Highland Rim Crossfit has been operating there for a little more than a year and Joyce has moved her attorney’s office there too. “It was basically abandoned for 15 to 20 years,” said Joyce.
I don’t remember anything operating at that spot before in all my years as business guy. Joyce says people have come in and talked about the days when there used to be a printing company, dance studio and even a dentist there.
Joyce and Lee were aided in their renovation efforts by a program called PILOT, which stands for Payment In Lieu Of Taxes. This is a financial incentive program designed to encourage commercial and residential development downtown.
The program freezes property taxes at their level before renovation. It can be extremely valuable if you buy an older building in poor condition.
“Being able to freeze our property taxes was definitely a factor in our decision to spend the money to renovate the building,” said Joyce, who indicated major roof repairs are among the many upgrades.
Here’s an example of how PILOT works. Let’s say Jan buys a vacant building for $100,000. Her combined McMinnville and Warren County property taxes would be $1,720 a year.
Jan is an ambitious lady and she makes her building sparkle like a castle to the point where it’s worth $500,000. Her combined city and county taxes would now be $8,600 a year.
But if Jan got approved for the PILOT program before starting her work and got her property taxes frozen, it would save her $6,800 a year, based on the assumption taxes don’t increase or decrease. Over the course of 15 years, that’s a savings of $103,200.
“It can really save people a lot of money,” said Mike Weatherspoon, a board member of McMinnville Downtown Revenue Finance Corporation which oversees PILOT. “The more people know about this program, the more they can make good use of it and help downtown.”
As for Walling Arcade, Joyce is offering a unique incentive of her own in hopes of attracting some tenants. Among other things, she’d love to have a coffee shop in the building.
Joyce says if you’re interested in locating your business there, she’s willing to allow you to use the space rent free for 3 to 5 years, provided you make the necessary interior improvements. She will reap the benefit of upgraded retail space and the tenant will reap the benefit of not having to pay rent.
For more information, Joyce can be reached at (615) 830-8593.

That’s all folks

Thank you for reading this Christmas installment of Business Cheetah. On behalf of the entire Business Cheetah family, Merry Christmas.