MP City Council approves site plan for Jabil warehouse expansion

Jabil Packaging Solutions is pursuing a potential warehouse expansion after getting the site plan approved by the Mt. Pleasant City Council on Wednesday, June 26.

The site plan adds a large warehouse to their current building at 400 North Harvey Road in Mt. Pleasant, which could add around eight to 10 jobs.

Larry Todey, plant manager at Jabil, said the expansion project still is in the proposal stage. The Jabil location in Mt. Pleasant has the business to support an expansion while no other location does at the moment, Todey said.

'We just have to find the business to fill it up,” Todey said. 'We're putting together the what-ifs and how much it would cost.”

Todey said adding a new warehouse could open up other production space and could potentially lead to more than 10 jobs added. While that could cause an issue with parking in their parking lot, Todey said they would cross that bridge when they get to it.

'It doesn't add lots and lots of jobs, but it adds lots of tax value to the City of Mt. Pleasant, which we're always happy to see come into town,” Mayor Steve Brimhall said.

The proposed warehouse space is 126,00 square feet.

In other news, the city council authorized Brimhall to sign a grant application to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for 90 percent of the total cost to reconstruct the runway and taxi lane approach.

The airport reconstruction project started as a rehabilitation project; however, as engineers began taking soil samples, they came to the conclusion that it needed to be a complete rebuild, said Brent Schleisman, city administrator.

Rebuilding the airport runway is contingent upon getting grant funding from the FFA, as the project is expected to cost $4 million.

'I'm optimistic we will get funded this fall or next summer,” Schleisman said. 'If we didn't get it until next summer, it would affect our airport operator a little harder than if we did it this fall.”

Schleisman said if the airport runway is rebuilt, it should have a life span of 25 years. Last time the airport runway was reconstructed with an asphalt overlay, the city got 15 years out of it, he said.

The city council also awarded the project to the low bidder of Cedar Valley Corp, out of Waterloo. The bid was well under the engineer's estimate, Brimhall said.

Schleisman said they have communicated to the contractor that the project is contingent upon grant funding.