FORTVILLE – Secure Tech Solutions went before the town council to request a tax abatement for an expansion of what was formally known as the Seals Ambulance building at the council meeting Monday night.
Nate Holmes, owner and CEO of Secure Tech Solutions and owner of the property at 700 W. Broadway St., said that he moved the business to the former township trustee building approximately two years ago, but since then they are “exploding at the seams.”
With the building only being 5,100 square-feet, Holmes said he had to rent other space until they can complete building expansion.
Holmes said the plan is to add about 10,900 square feet to that current location to make the location right around 17,000 square-feet and has been working with the Redevelopment Commission and Vernon Township trustees to address sewage and drainage issues they are running into for the expansion.
Adam Zaklikowski, planning and building director, said that when addressing drainage and sewage, they need to make sure that the runoff that’s caused by this expansion can go off site and go onto the township property, “because their lot is relatively small and they don’t have a detention pond or really much stormwater detention/retention to speak of right now.”
With the expansion, Holmes said they would look to hire approximately 10 to 15 more employees, adding onto their current numbers of 46 Indiana employees and 52 employees nationwide.
Holmes said that Secure Tech Solutions is an educational technology company that works with school districts around the country, providing schools with new Chromebook cases and accessories, repairs for accidental damage protecting plans and hardware repairs. They also buy back devices and recycle them.
“We have about 160 school districts that we work with in Indiana, including Mt. Vernon, Greenfield-Central, New Pal — all the county schools — and then we are in about 360 school districts in the country and growing rapidly,” Holmes said. “So, expansion is very needed, and I’m here to request a property tax abatement on the expansion of that building once it gets under construction of 1900 square-feet.”
Zaklikowski said that for the request that night, the council would need to approve a declaratory resolution, which memorializes the request Holmes made and is also required by Indiana law for tax abatements.
The council had no further questions and approved the declaratory resolution.
Next steps in the process will be a public hearing and then at the meeting following the public hearing the council, if so chooses, would approve the confirmatory resolution.
