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At its meeting on Monday, the West Point City Council approved a memorandum of understanding between West Point Development Authority, Glovis Georgia LLC, and Ridgeline Property Group, LLC for a $25 million construction project located at 1225 Webb Bartley Road in West Point.

The MOU says that the company and developer will be subject to a seven-year, 50% ad valorem tax abatement.

According to meeting agenda documents, the project consists of the construction of a new Glovis manufacturing facility, “including construction and installation of machinery and equipment” at the facility. The facility is expected to create 70 new jobs.

Councilwoman Deedee Williams brought up the issue of noise pollution from the construction site, asking if all construction would cease by 6 p.m.

“The heavy equipment, certainly, I think is what’s creating most of the noise complaints from backup alarms and backwards and forwards of those machines,” said City Manager Ed Moon.

“So yes, there would still be activity on the site. The contractor is under a contract with the owner of the project, and they have a specific timeline on that, so they’re working to meet that timeline, but they were willing to reduce those hours and do what they can to reduce the noise from the site.”

“So they’ll stop operating heavy equipment at 6 p.m., but everything else will go on until what hour?” asked Williams.

Moon responded that the construction crew will be working until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m.

Williams asked if noise buffers would be put up during construction, when the facility is operational or both.

Moon responded that buffers wouldn’t be up during the construction phase but that buffers would be put between the future facility and the residential area along Webb Bartley Road “toward the end of the project.”

“So, they’re referring to landscape buffers?” asked Williams.

“There’s already some landscape buffers that are in the plans,” Moon said.

“Those are not substantial barriers, so we talked about potentially some berms or some heavier plantings. And again, there was no disagreement to that. I think we’ve just got some more processes to work through to try to figure out how we can work together to make that happen.”

Williams asked if there were more specific plans for the buffers.

“So, at this point, we don’t have anything specific with regard to what and how tall and how dense or any of that, just that they’re willing to entertain the idea of doing something?” she asked.

“They’ve met the requirements that the city has as far as our ordinance and development standards go,” Moon said.

“So, they’ve met all of the requirements. This will be in addition to that.”

Councilman Rev. Gerald Ledbetter thanked city staff for working toward a resolution for the noise pollution. He then pushed for noise buffers.

“I believe that noise abatement and buffers should be and must be pushed and strengthened, that the city, the county, the state, and the developers must continue to work together as we move forward on this and any project to see that the residents are protected as much as possible,” Ledbetter said.

“And I promise to continue to work toward those particular items myself.”

In other business at the meeting, the council approved:

A new millage rate of 8.818 from the previous 8.971.

A bid award to Lumin8 Transportation Technologies in the amount of $478,372.83 for improvements to the intersection of MLK and 10th street.

Buying a new sanitation collection loader truck from Peterson Industries for $177,185.

Turning over all commercial dumpster accounts that are being billed by the city and collected by Amwaste over to Amwaste for billing.

A bid award for the construction of sidewalks and other facilities to JBC Contractors, LLC for $239,170.05.

A Troup County Fire Automatic Aid Agreement between city of West Point and Troup County.