Carthage Medical Waste Disposal firm gets tax break

By Jamaal E. O'Neal

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A Houston-based medical-waste disposal firm is getting a tax break from Carthage.

City commissioners approved a resolution Monday that grants Sharps Compliance a five-year tax abatement.

Under the resolution, Sharps Compliance will get a 40 percent property tax break this year. That discount will ratchet down in the next several years so that by 2014 the company will pay 100 percent of its property taxes. The company also must invest more than $1 million at its local plant and create and retain another six jobs by 2014, according to Carthage Economic Development Corp. CEO Charles Thomas.

The company employees eight people at its Carthage plant.

Officials announced plans in February to invest an additional $2 million at the LaSalle Parkway facility in the next two years to dispose of hypodermic needles, lancets and any other medical devices that puncture or cut the skin.

Sharps Compliance Executive Vice President David P. Tusa said the company has invested about $1.5 million during the past six months to make the site compliant for medical waste disposal.

Construction on the expansion could begin in two months.

In other business, commissioners approved a lease agreement between the city and East Texas Medical Center EMS.

City Secretary Donna Sickel said ETMC will pay the city $2,150 per month for next 10 years to recoup construction costs of the new EMS facility on Ball Park Road near the Carthage Baseball Complex.

The Carthage Improvement Corp., a seven-member committee responsible for allocating a portion of sales tax money toward economic improvement projects, approved spending as much as $300,000 on the building in June.

The new EMS facility will have three ambulance bays and space for one fire truck. Sickel said ETMC will take care of the operation, maintenance and insurance on the building.