Two firms in Green receive economic development grants
GREEN: City Council has approved municipal economic development grants for two Green businesses, helping them to expand operations within the city.Funding for both grants will come from the 2 percent income tax payroll withholdings — 25 percent for retained workers and 50 percent for new employees.New Innovations, of Boettler Oaks Drive, will receive a $73,684 grant to help it hire 10 full-time employees over the next five years and purchase the vacant InfoCision building on Forest Lake Drive.Owner Steve Reed, a Green resident, said he will gut the interior of the new home with plans to occupy the facility by November or next December.An international firm, New Innovations is a software development business that has designed sophisticated products for medical school residency programs. The firm calls itself the largest provider of such software in the country, with clients nationwide and in parts of the Middle East.It employs 37 people full time and one part time.The other grant, totaling an estimated $52,520, was given to Best Mold & Manufacturing on East Turkeyfoot Lake Road, with 39 full-time and four part-time employees.Owner Dave Miller said the firm will expand its manufacturing operations and related employee services at its current location and is proposing a 10,900-square-foot addition, which would add more than 45 percent to the building’s current size and cost just under $1 million.Miller said current ownership purchased and consolidated three machine shops on the verge of bankruptcy and since then has remained strong and continues to grow.Council also agreed to demolish the city-owned structure that housed the American Muscle gym on Massillon Road to allow for additional parking for the post office next door.
