Town of Malta officials met St. Patrick’s Day, Monday, March 17, to see what could possibly be at the end of the Advanced Micro Devices rainbow.
AMD, which plans to build three chip fabrication plants in the Luther Forest Technology Campus and bring 1,405 jobs to the area, is also obligated to provide host-community benefits to the town.
Specific projects have yet to be hashed out, said Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville, but the board is considering asking for funding to supplement public services that the proposed chip fab plant will affect. These include new town offices, a new highway garage and a new fire station closer to Luther Forest than the current main stations.
`With AMD coming, there are greater responsibilities for our fire departments,` Sausville said.
Sausville explained that the Round Lake and Malta Ridge fire companies have their main stations at the extreme northern and southern ends of town. Smaller substations exist closer to the center of town, but with AMD coming, Sausville said a larger, more centrally located station is needed.
Round Lake Mayor Dixie Lee Sacks added that there was a concern in the community that the Round Lake station is so close to part of the Round Lake bypass that it may pose a problem for fire trucks entering and exiting the station.
Sausville said the Town Board has yet to confer with officials from the Malta Ridge or Round Lake fire departments about the possibility of a new main fire department.
Funding for other town projects and services, like funding for the planned Malta Community Center expansion and operating money for libraries and schools, is also under consideration.
The town has also contemplated proposing a `locals-first` hiring program to AMD.
AMD’s manager of global community affairs, Ward Tisdale, reiterated to the town recently that the chip manufacturer wanted to be a community partner in the town. `We want this to be an inclusive process where, ultimately, the community and AMD are working together to make Malta a better place to live,` Tisdale wrote to the town on March 10.
AMD officials on Feb. 25 presented to the Malta Town Board, as well as town residents and other concerned parties, a plan to build three chip fab plants and bring 1,405 jobs to the area. Although the computer chip manufacturer has yet to commit to the site officially, it is currently going through the Malta Town and Planning Boards to secure a building permit by the end of the year. The company has until July 31, 2009, to decide and still be eligible for $1.2 billion in state incentives.
The same zoning law that the town passed in 2004 allowing computer chip factories to be built at Luther Forest also requires that the company, such as AMD, provide benefits to the town. Possible benefits, spelled out in the town’s zoning law, include contributions toward a town library or educational institution, preservation of open space, or the creation of museums, streetscapes or other beautification projects.
That law will require AMD to negotiate a community benefits agreement with the town, but town officials have yet to sit down with AMD to begin actual negotiations. Nor was any official action taken at the March 17 meeting, as the Town Board lacked a quorum, with only Sausville and Town Board member Peter Klotz in attendance.
It was all the same to Sausville, however, who said the community-benefits portion of AMD’s possible arrival is still in the early stages.
`There is a great deal of communication that still has to go on going forward,` he said.“