Added protections for Oconee

Oconee County is close to welcoming an automotive parts maker to one of its industrial parks, but it will insist on adding language to the agreement that protects the county in the event the company does not live up to its plans.  Final approval of a deal that will bring a still publicly unidentified manufacturer to the Information and Technology Park on highway 11 is pending a vote now scheduled for County Council’s April 5 meeting.  The economic development project has been code-named Project Mackinaw, in apparent deference to the rural Michigan town in which the company is based.  If the deal comes to be, Richard Blackwell of Oconee Economic Alliance, has said the operation will make a $19.5 million investment, provide 89 jobs, and take up a 300 thousand square foot pad in the park.