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Chemung snares 300 jobs at Taylor

Workers will process telephone and mail orders for Artistic Plaza firm

By G. JEFFREY AARON
Star-Gazette
May 9, 2000

Chemung County's employment picture received a shot in the arm Monday when county officials announced that 300 new jobs will come to Taylor Corp.'s Northeast Data Services center at Artistic Plaza in Elmira. Over the next three years, new workers are expected to join 50 people already employed at the service center at 1580 Lake St. to process telephone and mail orders for Taylor, a Minnesota-based direct-mail merchandiser that sells items ranging from personalized coffee mugs to personalized stationery.

Chemung County's Industrial Development Agency agreed Monday morning to combine $25,000 of its money with $25,000 from the development agency Southern Tier Economic Growth to give Taylor Corp. a grant to ensure that the center maintains at least 50 workers during the next five years.

To encourage Taylor to hire additional workers, state economic development officials offered financial incentives worth about $2.5 million to the company, in the form of wage tax credits, employee training and capital improvement money.

The financial incentives come with conditions, including:

- The training funds, totaling $300,000, will be doled out over three years and are contingent on the number of new workers.

- If the number of workers at the center falls to fewer than 50, Taylor Corp. must return the $50,000 grant.

"It was very important that they stay in the city of Elmira and get the employee level to what Artistic Direct Inc. previously had," said Chemung County Executive G. Thomas Tranter Jr., who is secretary of the Industrial Development Agency.

"We are pleased to have them decide to stay and the state assistance definitely helped. They were impressed with the work ethic and quality of the employees they had."

STEG President George Miner said Taylor will begin hiring new workers immediately. The workers will be screened through the state Department of Labor office, 200 Baldwin St., Elmira.

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