By Gary Lloyd
The Trussville City Council on Tuesday approved monthly contributions to the Trussville Volunteer Fire Department for scrap metal removal from the former Gold Kist chicken processing plant facility.
The council approved a $67,000 first-month contribution and $17,000 per month for the next 11 months for the volunteer fire department to remove the scrap metal from the site and building, and haul it to a recycling facility. The total cost for the 12-month scrap removal, sorting, loading and hauling is $254,000
.
City Clerk Lynn Porter said two scrap dealers estimated the value of the site’s scrap to be between $150,000 and $200,000-plus.
The money made from selling the scrap will come back to the city.
The Trussville Volunteer Fire Department will be removing scrap metal from the former Gold Kist facility in Trussville.
photo by Gary Lloyd
The council also approved $2,143 for Tusco, Inc. to install a drive-through gate at the facility. The city will go out to bid soon to fence a large area on the site, which is located at the end of Will Pond Road off Camp Coleman Road, Porter said.
The city council in December authorized the city’s purchase of the 53.27-acre site for $1.7 million. The property, which was owned by Scottsman Trades, a company owned by McPherson Oil, was valued at $4.5 million. The property includes 10,000 square feet of office space and 120,000 square feet of warehouse space, which could allow the city to have an operations center. The facility could also securely house Trussville City Schools school buses.
“It’s an extremely good situation for us,” Trussville Mayor Gene Melton said in December.
The Gold Kist plant closed in 2003, and the Trussville Industrial Board bought the property in 2005 to expand the Trussville Industrial Park. Part of the property was then sold to McPherson Oil.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.
