ELKHART — Elkhart County is moving ahead with plans to grant tax abatements for firms looking to expand and add new jobs in the county.

This weekend the county agreed to grant property tax cuts to one a company in Middlebury. The county also tentatively agreed to do the same for a company in Elkhart.

When it comes to business, consolidation often means one area's gain and another's loss. In this case, two companies are making plans to bring jobs from other parts of the country to Elkhart County.

One of those is Atwood Mobile Products. They make a variety of RV components and are planning to bring in a total of 94 new jobs over the next two years.

“What we would like to do is use the tax abatement to bring in equipment to help support expansion in the Elkhart area in two areas — in hardware, and another one, window production,” explained Atwood president Tim Stephens. “We're having to close a factory in West Union, Iowa to accommodate this unfortunately."

The company says while they are not creating an incredibly large number of new jobs, it adds to the overall efforts in the county to get the economy back on track.

“We're hoping we've hit the bottom and things are turning around and again,” Stephens said. “It’s important to remember it’s a depressed market. We're down 60 percent in sales and any new jobs we bring in is really going to multiply as the market comes back, and it will do it fairly quickly.”

Jami Incorporated also makes RV components at its plant in Middlebury. The county has approved a tax abatement request for expansion.

“Where they would retain over 140 jobs and then add an additional 85 jobs, over the next two years,” said Dorinda Heiden-Guss of the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County. “It would be a consolidation project where they're closing a facility in Texas.”

Those 85 new jobs at Jami Incorporated will come in the first two years. The company hopes to add 35 more in the future.