National Electric Carbon Products tax abatement dies

FOSTORIA — A proposed tax abatement for National Electric Carbon Products, Inc., for community reinvestment into land occupied by Morgan Advanced Materials at 200 N. Town Street, died during Tuesday night's Fostoria City Council meeting.The measure, which council had tabled for the better part of a year, died after it was untabled and no council member made a motion to adopt it.The original plan aimed to enhance National Electric Carbon Products, Inc.'s silicon carbide manufacturing operations, with 124 full-time jobs being created."It's been tabled because the company has gone through a lot of transition and a lot of change, plus there have been tariffs put on that have affected them to a degree," Mayor Don Mennel said after the meeting. "They have had a change in the (chief executive officer) and the (chief financial officer) at the corporate headquarters in Europe. So, there's a lot of change going on in the company and they've also lost some business."They're re-examining everything and, hopefully, it will come back with a new project that will probably be resized and reconfigured. But we're still very big on the company and they've been here a long time and we're looking forward to them staying with us."Council did approve a resolution authorizing Safety Service Director Eric Keckler to apply for a $750,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation for a fuel tank replacement at Fostoria Municipal Airport.Having won council seats as incumbents in the November election, Amy Mendoza, Sue Lehmann and Tom Baker took their oath of office from Law Director Stephanie Kiser, as did newcomer Gayle Guernsey.Lehmann, Bob Podach and Greg Cassidy were named to council's finance committee, while Mendoza, Baker and Alex Grine were tapped for the law and ordinance committee and Mendoza and Guernsey were selected for the public affairs committee.Cassidy was named to succeed the retired Thomas Lake as council president pro tempore.Mennel reported that the city and the Seneca County General Health District are working on having the Ohio Department of Health host a mobile free clinic from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 9, in Fostoria."It should be a very good event," the mayor said. "We're still working on details. We hope to do this twice a year. We feel it would be a big benefit to people in Fostoria who need and don't get the proper healthcare."