The very people wanting a handout from the citizens of Coos County earned almost $640,000 according to an Industrial Minerals Corporation 2010 Annual Report. Listed salaries of Dan Smith, Cheryl Wilson, Jim Dingman, Joseph Drew and Todd Lessard total $638,686. The figure includes personal use of company cars for Smith, Drew and Lessard.

Not included in these figures are more recent management hires, George Gabrial, CFO, and Stephanie Highsmith, Controller or Pete Zagar, Director of Environmental Health and Safety.

Monday, November 1, ORC with the aid of two thirds of the BOC will ask the taxpayers of Coos County to share their risk and extend their property tax abatement for a combined total of eight years. O&C payments are set to expire during this period of extended tax relief.

One of the conditions of the enterprise zone tax abatement is that wages exceed 150% of the county average wage of approximately $30,000 or roughly $45,000. If management salaries are factored into the application, and I haven’t checked to see if they are, it will not be hard for the company to meet the ezone requirements and still pay workers the county average wage of $30,000.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the Coos Bay City Council Chambers, 500 Central Ave. Stufflebean admits he has received many phone calls opposed to the extension but is set to vote for it anyway. Apparently, he believes people who oppose it simply don’t understand enterprise zones or know how to read or formulate critical decisions.