9 January 2014
Dearborn County Redevelopment Commission Meeting Notes
Present: John Rahe, Chairman (arrived 15 minutes late after
Maxwell report), Kevin Lynch,Vice Chairman, Jim Helms, Dave Deddins, Jim Deaton
Also present: Terri Randall, and Sue Hayden
ABSENT: Andrea Ewan- who arrived at 5:15 PM and left after
her report and Maynard Barrett
Audience: Randy Maxwell, Chris Mueller, and Denise
Freitag-Burdette
Maxwell Consulting
Updates- Randy Maxwell- slow month in December- started the flood plain
study- preliminary draft- Terri and he met with flood plain study person in
Blue Ash today. He’s taking a few different approaches in analyzing this. He
will finalize this in the next 30 days. We want to know how much ground is
affected by this. Land acquisition from
last exec session- the adjoiner to the mill property has decided now that he
has no interest in selling his property after 3-4 months of negotiations.
Deaton asked if we could get the little piece across the road. That is still in
motion. Those discussions are ongoing. Bill Rudisell owns the one to the east
that does not want to sell. He wants to just let it go to auction at his death.
Deaton says it may be more advantageous to his heirs after his death. Maxwell
said everything happens for a reason and this will be OK. Randall said that the
mill doesn’t need any of this any time soon as they haven’t gotten the plant
built yet. Maxwell then departed for Batesville for his son’s game.
Election of 2014
Officers: Helms suggested Rahe might want to be relieved of the post as he
has been in that position for a long time. Rahe listened but did not concur. Helms
nominated Dave Deddins and he was elected Chairman. Vice Chairman was Jim
Deaton. Secretary is Jim Helms again. [NOTE:
Rahe did not turn over the meeting to Deddins at this point- as is the custom.
He continued to run the meeting.]
Land acquisition
funds, EDI, and keeping grants separate require a treasurer per Randall.
Angie Walters does treasurer for Greendale Redevelopment and Randall will meet
with her and see what is needed. They want to get a non-member of the commission
as treasurer. Lynch thinks Sue Hayden could learn how to do it from Angie. She
also would be available when people need to see her. They will address this
officially at the next meeting. Tabled for now.
Minutes of December
12 meeting approved.
Unfinished Business:
none
New Business:
Maxwell –covered
above as he had to leave
Financials- Cash
balance was stated, TIF balances are unchanged. This starts a new budget year.
There is $25,000 funded by Council which does not show on this report thru Dec
31, 2013. Report taken as information.
Claims- approved
4 claims. Randall did not state the names or amounts of these for the public to
hear. Randall said that Maxwell gave them a major discount on their fee for
December because this was fair. They do have a maximum monthly fee even if he
works extra on some other months. Randall stated that she warned him that if he
worked beyond the maximum some months he wouldn’t get any extra money for that even
though he had charged less in December. [NOTE:
Whose money is this? If Maxwell is charging fairly, then why encourage him to
take the full amount now IN CASE he works more hours some other month?]
County Administrator
Report-Terri Randall- Returned Funds
from Land purchase- when the Stone property was purchased in 2012- half was a
Law’bg grant and half from County Council. When EDI was reconciling they split
the total and $10,855.54 is returned to us. The other half went back into the
Lawrenceburg grant account. Approved.
Deaton asked what would happen if we didn’t return it to Lawrenceburg.
Randall said it is part of interlocal agreement. She said we want to keep good
relations with Lawrenceburg. [NOTE:
Interesting how we view this grant money vs. taxpayer funds above under claims.]
Andrea Ewan arrived
at this point at 5:15 PM.
EDI had a meeting and
disbanded and they are closing down the books also. EDI wanted to know if
the county wanted to take over any of their activities. They have a $1000 lease
for a billboard promoting the Stone property. Discussion on whether or not
people buy property based on that sign. EDI was the marketing arm for
redevelopment. Kelli Boiman did the website and the radio spots to keep up with
marketing. Randall talked with her visioning cohorts in the 3 cities. EDI
brought in all the contacts for economic development. She sees the county as a
neutral place for those contacts to go to now. The Committee of county and
mayors reps would be monthly meeting to get together with that employee that is
hired with the grant to be the contact for all Economic leads. Andrea Ewan said
she could help with work force development. She is with a group that gets data
from College Success Coalition to get county data on the county work force.
Lynch, Maxwell, Deddins, and Randall, and Scott Fortner and Tom Walker from
Dillsboro are going to Muncie for the week long educational course of economic
development. Deddins will review the billboard agreement with Stone to see what
he can negotiate. Either party can terminate with 30 days notice. Redevelopment
voted to pay the fee for one more month to keep it up for negotiation. They
will notify of cancellation if they need it. They could see if Hirlinger wants
to use it possibly too per Lynch.
Ground breaking for
Whitewater Milles is Jan 31st. Governor can’t come. They might
get another official from the state agriculture director and maybe bring the Lt
Governor per Lynch. He will also be down for the Farm Bureau in April as their
keynote speaker. Jud McMillin and Randy Freye have committed to be there. Randall will put together a budget for the
ceremony. They want this to look professional as it is a big deal.
File for a LOMAR or a LOMA form (she couldn’t remember the
form name) for Mills to get them
considered as being out of the flood plain as they have raised the site above
it now. For banks to loan they need to get it recognized as being different
from what shows on FEMA flood maps.
Minor things to sign
off on London- Witte’s work on the bonds etc.
Annual report that has to be filed with commissioners each year by
March. She will bring that to them at Feb meeting to get that to
Commissioners. Maybe have a redevelopment person present that to commissioners
then.
We don’t have the
$50,000 that comes annually from CVTB. She and maybe commissioners need to
go to their next meeting to seek that support still. They meet at 8:30 AM on
the 21st.
Attorney’s report-
Ewan said that Thursday is now a good day for her to be at their meetings. She
apologized earlier for her tardiness. She is attorney for her mother’s friend
out of town and had several closings to attend to.
Rahe said that this
new person we are going to hire will be for marketing.
Randall added- and
website management, center for all IEDC leads, networking to get leads, and
branding. This person is not just hired by the county- but hired by the 3
mayors also. The caveat is that this is not for a county employee who works
just for the county.
Rahe said- WHO oversees this person? Who hires and fires?
That will be as problem. Rahe also wanted to know if we should be advertizing
on radios in Cincinnati again?
Randall said that a lot of leads come from existing
business. The Mills – is one we got one from one of their partners. Maybe
pulling in information from our businesses too. Use local redevelopment groups
to help.
Rahe said the chamber
of commerce promotes local business. Deddins will now go to that. The Chamber
does not have a new director yet.
Deaton said we should also partner with adjoining county
redevelopments too.
Lynch said we need to visit the statehouse more too. We want
them to refer to us too.
2014 Meeting Dates
and Times- 2nd Thursday at 8 AM meeting times being considered.
Feb 13th at 8 AM is the next meeting. They will poll other members
to see what date and time works best for them. I brought up that the newspaper
might not be open by then. It was discussed that the newspaper might not be
able to cover them that early. Comment was that that was not their problem. (unless
you want transparency I stated to them.)Randall
does not anticipate many executive sessions. [NOTE: Why not- does she see no new business to negotiate with all year?]
They can set executive sessions any time- not just before meetings. [NOTE: So
we will bend over backwards to accommodate business prospects- just not the
public?] Randall went on to tell the board that they could set meeting
times that suited their schedules. [NOTE:
This is starting to get ridiculous with the county. Have they forgotten that
they serve the PUBLIC and setting all meetings when the public has little chance
to attend is not a good idea. Even WORKING board members will have trouble
being there at 8 AM and coming to work late. Anyone getting kids to school
might also. Commissioners are also doing
this- morning meetings after people are at work in the morning and evening
meetings that start right about the time work ends so that people aren’t home
yet. Isn’t is the employed county residents that pay the bulk of the taxes? Isn’t
it the employed business owners they are trying to bring to the county for
economic development? The pervasive attitude here is not transparency and wide
open doors. If you discount coverage of your meetings you are shutting down a
source that gets the word out of your existence and your plans so that business
gets to know your procedures and how to approach your board. Not everything
needs to be behind closed doors. Just out of curiosity- when do other City and
Town Redevelopment Boards meet? How will the minute taker- Sue Hayden - operate within the law when she is employed form 8:30 - 4:30 by the county and paid separately by the Redevelopment board? If she works as their treasurer also they need her for the meeting. Does she come to work late on those days? Who covers her county duties then?]
By statute have a
school board member- Dusty Burress will come to redevelopment as non-voting
member. Maynard Barrett is now a voting member. Andrea Ewan and the county
attorney were part of checking this statute per Randall.
5 members- appointed 2
by council and 3 by commissioners and 6th member is non-voting
school board member. We now have one too many. We can have a 5 or 7 person
board. If 7 then commissioners are 4
appointments and council gets 3 appointments.
Nothing more on Project C- per Randall and Lynch.
Meeting adjourned at 6:15 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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