Vote set on variance for huge factory

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 11:43 a.m.

At 380,000 square feet, with nearly three dozen 75-foot-high, glossy white silos piercing the sky, a proposed Henderson factory would be the largest manufacturing plant built in the Las Vegas Valley in a decade and eventually employ almost 500 workers.

Texas-based Poly West, the nation's largest maker of trash bags, wants to build its fifth factory on 45 acres in southeast Henderson along the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad. The plant would supply such western regional clients as Wal-Mart and Costco.

But to build the plant, Poly West needs to win a variance Thursday from the Henderson Planning Commission.

Buildings are limited to a height of 50 feet in the Mission Hills planning area, where the plant would be located. Several residents, some of whom would be eating dinner less than 250 feet from the 24-hour industrial giant, have expressed concern at the height of the silos and the noise that would be generated by deliveries each week from about 100 tractor-trailers and another 75 rail cars.

The trash bag plant promises to help diversify an economy dominated by gambling and bring new revenue to the city and the state.

But a local economist says the new jobs do not pay the high salaries generally associated with manufacturing and will do little to improve the quality of life in Henderson.

The plant, if approved, would open by 2003 and employ about 100 workers at an average wage of $14.96 an hour, George Hall, vice president of manufacturing for the parent company, Poly-America, said. It would be another seven to 10 years before the plant employs 500, he said.

The expected wages amount to far less in annual pay than similar manufacturing jobs in Clark County. Manufacturing jobs, which accounted for 3 percent of county jobs in 2000, paid an average salary of $37,700, according to state employment records.

At $14.96 an hour, employees of the proposed Poly West plant would earn on average $31,100 annually, about $6,600 less than at other plants.

That kind of annual wage is only slightly higher than the average wage earned by employees of the gambling and hospitality industry. Service industry workers averaged $29,300 before tips in 2000. Clark County workers as a whole earned an average of $32,100.

"The argument typically has been that manufacturing jobs are high-paying jobs. But we're not talking about a significant improvement in income levels here," Keith Schwer, director of the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research, said. "These are jobs I suspect graduates of the Henderson State College won't be taking. And needless to say, this is not a group that is going to be buying homes up in Anthem. They're probably going to have to live in an apartment."

Bob Cooper, director of economic development for Henderson, agreed that some workers would make modest wages, but he said the plant would also bring "some fairly significant, well-paying jobs."

"It's kind of a coup," Cooper said, to bring a nationally recognized company to Henderson over competing regional cities such as Phoenix, Salt Lake City or cities in Southern California.

The plant would also help diversify the local economy, Cooper said.

"In the public sector, we have to try to provide jobs for all people. We have some outstanding projects we're working on, like Hughes Network Systems, which could pay $80,000 or $90,000 for most employees. But not everyone is suited, nor do they desire, to be a computer analyst. They'd rather work with their hands," Cooper said.

Cooper projects that the plant will bring the city an annual payroll of $3.2 million initially. That sum is expected to increase to $6.8 million by 2005, when the plant could employ closer to 200 workers.

The plant is projected to provide $244,000 in tax revenue for Henderson in 2003. By 2005 it could provide as much as $415,000. The plant would pay more than $20,000 annually for water and sewer services.

But before the plant breaks ground, Poly West will have to persuade the Planning Commission that it has met concerns of neighbors.

Hall, of Poly-America, says that after two meetings with Mission Hills neighbors, his architects have altered building plans "about as much as we can."

The silos have been planned in two rows rather than six and would be placed on the building side farthest from homes. The company would also cut into the hillside to reduce the apparent height of the silos, Hall said. He could not say how much dirt would be excavated or how much the digging would add to building costs.