Cass County Council tables tax abatement for Turkish factory over permit issues and toxic chemical concerns

CASSOPOLIS, Mich. --The Village of Cassopolis held a workshop meeting on Monday evening where many residents showed up against a proposed 12-year tax abatement for Fibrosan, a Turkish manufacturer of fiberglass-reinforced plastic and glass-reinforced plastic laminates and composite panels.

Some residents stated they weren't happy with Fibrosan and their lack of communication during their construction and handling of chemicals.

Resident Sue Monaghan stated, "Well, there's been a lot of issues with the transparency. I'm sure that there, in any group or municipality, there's a lot of research done when they're researching these companies that they want to bring and increase employability in your community, rightly so. But at a certain point, there needs to be discussion about what is that company going to bring to the community, and what risks come with it, and what outweighs the other?"

She followed this up by saying "…the problem that we're having as the community is, is they don't give us the answers we're asking for, and we have been asking for the chemical data sheets. We have been asking for a lot of information on Fibrosan and what they're bringing to us and not getting the answers."

The council decided to table the abatement, citing the following reasons:

• There was no discussion with Fibrosan and the council about the tax abatement
• No proper paperwork or permits presented
• Information was changed between two permits filed on separate dates
• There's no mention of a 2nd phase as Fibrosan has made plans after the current project.

Currently, one of the members of the council is trying to investigate paperwork because there's been a discovery that someone has used city's funds to pay for a trip to Turkey.

Save Cass County was the one who searched into funds and pointed it out to the public.