NORTH JACKSON — Midwestern home improvement store Menards has filed a permit application with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, as the company looks at sites for building a $50 million distribution center — possibly in Jackson Township.

The area being looked at here is north of Interstate 76, east of Bailey Road and west of the railroad tracks.

Four other sites also were evaluated for the project: Kent, Atwater, Ravenna and a second site in North Jackson, according to the permit.

The permit calls for two distribution facilities and four manufacturing facilities, totaling 90 acres.

The complex could bring an estimated 90 “new and continuing” jobs to the area, approximately $3.4 million annually in payroll, and $1.6 million in payroll taxes, the permit states.

Tom Frost, a Jackson Township trustee, said there hasn’t been “a whole lot of discussion” between the township and the company, but the prospect of the facility is exciting.

“Obviously when you get a national company looking into your community, that’s pretty exciting,” Frost said. “We look forward to them coming in and being a good neighbor.”

Frost said the company will have to go through the township’s zoning process before a facility could be built, but the site in question already is zoned for industrial use.

Menards, in business since 1958, has more than 300 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to it’s website. It has a location on Elm Road in Bazetta. The company is headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

The EPA permit states that the purpose of a facility in North Jackson would be to “get the manufacturing and distribution closer to the stores” and provide for growth in the region.

“I can understand why they would want to move here,” said Frost. “You know our location, obviously with the two busiest intersections criss-crossing in our township.”

The site must get a water quality certification through the Ohio EPA because it will impact just under two acres of wetlands and 2,632 linear feet of stream channel. The impacted wetlands would be mitigated with the creation of new wetlands.

If approved, the project could begin in May 2020 and be completed by Apri 2021. Such a project is projected to generate $487,500 in local taxes and $214,500 in state taxes.

“We welcome (Menards) tax revenue and anything to benefit our residents,” Frost said.

avugrincic@tribtoday.com