PILOT MOUNTAIN — While officials are holding some information close to the vest, the town of Pilot Mountain could have some more jobs on the way.

Following a closed session during its regular monthly meeting Monday night, the town’s board of commissioners unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Town Manager Homer Dearmin and Town Attorney Ed Woltz to negotiate with an unnamed business for space in the Pilot Center.

“This is a very exciting thing for us,” Mayor Earl Sheppard said. “(If this comes through) it will mean the property will be in full use.”

While the prospective tenant is not being named, the resolution noted that the business will pay $213,000 for about 35,436 square feet in the center.

The terms of the offer includes the tenant leasing the property for a minimum of 10 years and contains a “proposed option to purchase the facility.”

The tenant will pay the town a lease payment of $4,350 per month, with $1,350 of that money being allocated to equity in the event the company chooses to purchase the property. The tenant also will invest $135,508 for improvements to the building’s roof and water/sewer infrastructure.

Dearmin said the prospective tenant is a light manufacturing business.

“There is definitely the potential for additional employees,” he said. “We’re still working on how many that could be, but there is definitely the potential for additional employees.”

In other business, prior to closed session the board approved a bid from local contractor Garanco, Inc. for improvements to the Surry Community College satellite facility in the Pilot Center.

Dearmin told the board that the town had received seven bids for the work, but the local contractor offered the town a deal on some improvements to the center, primarily offering to install folding partitions in the facility.

Garanco’s bid came in at $345,800.

“This is for Phase II improvements at the center,” Dearmin said. “They’re putting in two extra classrooms and an industrial technology workshop.”

According to Dearmin, the new facilities will expand the college’s operations at the Pilot Mountain campus, allowing for a versatile vocational workshop that can be used by businesses and industries in the county to train their employees.

The board also voted to authorize a public notice of its intention to close an unused and unpaved portion of Simmons Street south of the intersection with Sunset Drive.

The move comes at the request of adjacent property owners, according to Sheppard.

Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@heartlandpublications.com or 719-1929.