10 April 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes
Present: Dave Deddens,
Chairman, Jim Helms, John Rahe, Jim Deaton, and Maynard Barrett.
ABSENT: Kevin Lynch and
Dusty Burress- non voting school board member
[NOTE: There are 6 voting members on this board and only 5 are legally
allowed to vote. One of the commissioners appointees is technically not allowed
to vote. Deddins and Barrett are Council appointees. The rest are
commissioner’s appointees. The board can have 5 or if they want to expand it they
can have 7 voting members. To date there has been no public discussion of how
they plan to correct this situation.]
Also present: Terri
Randall, county administrator and economic development director, Andrea Ewan, attorney,
and Randy Maxwell, consultant.
Erika Schmidt Russell
(Register Publications) covered this meeting
There was no agenda
available as of closing time at the county administration building August 9.
Basic agenda was available this morning at the meeting. Meeting started at 8:45
AM
Action of Executive session- Continue negotiation
with the company confidentially.
Approval of minutes of
March 13th meeting-approved.
Unfinished business-none
New Business- financials and claims- Through a routine audit from Barnes and Thornburg they
discovered a billing for $2626 they had failed to submit in 2012. This was from
when Kunkel was with the DCRC. They are legitimate services on TIFs per
Randall. If we pushed back they may write it off. But the board wanted to keep
a good relationship with them so they approved that along with the claims.
County administrator report- Randall said there were
some legislative bills that affect Redevelopment. She will forward Tom Pitman’s
report to them. Reorganizing the summary on redevelopment reports is on the
list of items included in senate act 118. There are some more formal procedures
and it will involve the council more on validating things that DCRC does. This
has to do with building up excess TIF money. We are not near that amount here
yet.
Barrett asked if they’d
changed how the TIF money is used. Randall said no. Legislative body (council)
reviews the DCRC budget too. DCRC no longer has eminent power domain. Friction
starts with council when RC would start hoarding money per Barrett. Randall
said we could have a conference call with Pittman where he would walk through
this for the board. Randall said there is another bill that allows a local
entity to decide whether or not to abate personal property tax. This might pit
county against county for competing for business. [NOTE: isn’t this already happening?] Barrett said we are not full
out on our COIT or a wheel tax. Legislature is trying to look at this. Barrett said that he doesn’t see council
raising taxes. [NOTE: Apparently, they
are thinking that if we remove personal property tax to lure business, we will
have to make up the shortfall by raising COIT County Optional Income tax and/or
wheel taxes. So business gets a break on the backs of the taxpayers.]
Randall said that we are
completely done with Whitewater mills and the bonds etc. All paperwork signed.
Pitman said that the company gets the fees for $63,000 for all this as they get
the benefits. Siemans of Whitewater Mills “graciously” took this over per
Randall. Both $700,000 pieces from the Lawrenceburg Grant program for
Whitewater Mill have been passed thru and accounted for to Lawrenceburg Grants
program. Siemans will get the last check delivered personally from Terri
Randall when he is the guest speaker at the Farm Bureau dinner at Tanner Valley
Methodist church next week.
Barrett said the
paperwork is all done- BUT we have to maintain a relationship with them to keep
track of the other companies they are bringing in- like Naegele. [NOTE: and also to track the success or not
of the business.]
Lawrenceburg city is
following this closely too and have been able to tour and see how the money was
used.
Randy and Randall has met
with USDA and Jerry Haag who helped with OCRA grants. A lot of their stuff is
low interest loans- but the grants would be worth going after. If they need a
satellite firehouse out there- that might be worth running down per Randall.
Duke Energy has grants to
help get a site ready to market- if it is one of the sites they service.
Cardino ATC – they met with them regarding brownfields. We may have to get
involved with the municipalities to help them target sites for this help.
Farmland can even be eligible for brownfield help if they have used a lot of
chemicals.
Attorney report- none [NOTE: Perhaps Ms Ewan might want to get
with the county to get this board legally constituted. They have an incorrect
number of voting members- and have had them for some time now. ]
Rahe asked about fixing
up the Aurora Industrial park to make it more attractive to business out there.
Randy said they had to make sure they help maintain this improvement. Lighting
and landscaping. You also have to see who owns the land there. Perhaps the
Highway Dept. could help with that as they are located there also.
Randall said that she and
Grant Hughes attended a Redevelopment Commission meeting in Dillsboro. ( Deaton
is affiliated with that one also) Grant had worked with Multiple Machining and
she got to meet with them. She was amazed at how much they do. He had started
out on Wilson Creek Road in his barn. His business is in Dillsboro’s first TIF.
Moores Hill and St Leon are all working on their comprehensive plans. She said
she was thanked for the county showing an interest in Dillsboro. Deaton said
this was important to Dillsboro RC as it showed how important it was to work
cooperatively.
Meeting adjourned at 9:17
AM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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