Nefarious plot or capitalism at work?

At a recent neighborhood information meeting on a proposal to build a new asphalt plant in West Roanoke County, Catawba District Supervisor Butch Church forced that question.

He said he did not know whether a plan by Adams Construction Co. to build a plant in Glenvar was connected to an economic development performance agreement that will pay up to $1 million to English Construction Co. if it relocates a plant now in North Roanoke County.

But Church, who represents the area where the new plant would be built and whose opposition to it is not a secret, went on to ask, "Is the county paying them $1 million to relocate out here?"

When he noted that the two companies are owned by the same family, the audience of more than 200 at Glenvar Middle School reacted with indignation.

But in interviews since that Jan. 22 meeting, County Attorney Paul Mahoney and English Construction President Douglas Dalton contended there is nothing amiss with the agreements.

English Construction, a Lynchburg company, is the builder of a new county recreation center, which it proposed in 2007 to develop along with an upscale business park in cooperation with Roanoke County.

In crafting the deal, the company signed a performance agreement -- similar to ones used with some other companies to encourage economic development. One section provided that English would be reimbursed up to $1 million for a second phase of development, which included infrastructure such as roads, a site master plan and removal of an existing asphalt plant.

Provided it qualifies for the payment, the agreement also said the company must repay the money "if the project ... fails to generate $1 million dollars of new local tax revenues for the county by December 31, 2017."

Mahoney noted that companies frequently use their own business connections, such as subsidiaries, when they conduct business with the county.

"There is no indication of any violations of state law or federal law with respect to the transactions, or I would have advised against it," he said.

Although both companies are apparently owned entirely by members of the English family, they do have separate boards of directors and officers, Mahoney said. Such arrangements can have tax and other business advantages.

"That's capitalism," Mahoney said.

In a letter to Adams Construction President Gary Wright and released to The Roanoke Times last week, Dalton insisted that the Glenvar site "is NOT a replacement location" for the North County plant.

Mahoney also said that he and other county administrators have been told numerous times that Adams will continue to need an asphalt location relatively close to the existing North County location.

Numerous plants are needed because asphalt is heated there, then loaded into trucks that must deliver it to a work site before it begins to cool and becomes unmanageable.