The Clanton City Council granted a 10-year tax abatement to Boatright Companies for a crosstie plant the company is building.

The abatement will be worth approximately $480,000 in sales taxes and $765,000 in ad valorem (property) taxes over the next 10 years, Boatright Chief Financial Officer Steven Bookout told the council.

The figures include state, local and city takes but not education taxes, which can’t be abated.

When finished, the crosstie treatment facility will be an investment totaling $22 million and initially employ 25 people, Bookout said.

The plant will also be covered, completely enclosed and “state-of-the-art,” Bookout told the council.

Usually made from wood, crossties, also called railroad ties, are used as a base for railroad tracks. They help support rails and absorb train movement.

Bookout said plans for later additions would add more employees, potentially up to 80, which would rival the company’s Montevallo facility.

“It should be about the same,” Bookout added.

Council members Bobby Cook, Greg DeJarnett, Bobby Easterling and Mary Mell Smith voted for the abatement, while Dr. Jeff Price voted against it.

In voting no, Price said while the jobs would be great, work had already begun on the site and that with the abatement, it would be 10 years before the city receives any benefit from the facility.

In voicing her support, Smith said, “We are not receiving anything from up there now.

In also supporting the abatement, DeJarnett said he heard “Chilton County employees” mentioned several times and he hopes the company does hire locally.

“You don’t want to create an environment where Chilton County is not industrially friendly,” DeJarnett said.

In other business, the council took the following actions:

•Approved transferring the beer and table wine license Dollar General has at their Winn-Dixie Shopping Center location to the company’s new store on U.S. 31.

•Annexed Temple Assembly of God near Temple Road (County Road 85) into the city.