8 May 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes

8 May 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes

 

Present: Jim Deaton, Acting Chairman, Jim Helms, and John Rahe.

ABSENT: Dave Deddens, Chairman (vacation), Maynard Barrett, and Dusty Burress (non- voting school board member)

 

Also present: Terri Randall, county administrator and economic development director, Sue Hayden, administrative assistant, and Andrea Ewan, attorney, and Randy Maxwell, consultant.

(There was no executive session preceding this meeting.)

Minutes for April 10, 2014 Meeting- approved.

 

Approval of “notes” from prior meetings that had no minutes- there were meetings in 2013 that had no formal minutes taken and Terri Randall submitted her informal notes and email as backup of the items on the agenda for approval. This was the best they could do to recreate those meetings. These were the meetings that immediately followed the departure of Rozow and Kunkel. The board accepted these as the best records available for those meetings.  

 

Unfinished Business: none

 

New Business

Financials & Claims- Sue Hayden said she had done a new sheet to show cash balances and DCRC matching dollars for Lawrenceburg and Council money. They also went over the TIF balances. This includes the money returned from London Witte- see note below. Approved.

 

Interlocal Strategic Planning- Favorable recommendation from Lawrenceburg for Visioning. The economic development agreement was reviewed and they approved that also for $100,000. $270,000 for the grant to administrate for strategic planning project. DCRC is the administrator for that grant. The economic development agreement set this up as a 1099 contract employee. They made it clear this is NOT a county employee. They didn’t want to see it on the county payroll. They get paid $49,000/year. This has been increased to cover taxes. This is from the 10 county grant program. These are 2013 monies. Andrea and Andy Baudendistel sat with Grant Hughes and Terri Randall to hammer out that position. That person will report to the 3 mayors, the commissioners, the chairman od the Redevelopment Commissions. That person will sit at the county as we have the room here and Randall will be a resource for him or her. That $100,000 was previously sent over to EDI. Now the county is a player in that and the cities and towns sign the interlocal agreements and they will get it started with interviews for the position. Helms asked what kind of structure is set up for the reporting. They will have an item on the commissioners’ agenda to set up that reporting committee. It will be subject to open door laws when they meet. Helms wanted to be sure people had the opportunity to weigh in and see what they were doing with the director. Randall said that when she has been meeting with the economic directors of the cities they wanted to find out how to get all the input. They are looking at OCRA for grants to get the towns involved. Each community will have to decide if they want to be involved in comprehensive planning. The process is important. Aurora, Moores Hill have gotten their grants to start planning. Dillsboro has plan that is just about 2 years old. West Harrison is town of under 350 and they tie to Harrison more. They are not interested. St Leon is working to resurvey to see if they qualify for the grant. Their income levels were close for the OCRA grants. The survey is a salary survey. Greendale has already done their planning. Way ahead of everyone. Lawrenceburg’s main focus is working on the downtown area. No consultant has been selected- that is at least 6 months away for the visioning process. They had no questions about interlocal agreement. The DCRC voted to authorize Deddens to sign the interlocal agreement with Lawrenceburg for $270,000.

Rahe asked about what happens to all the plans have already been done. Randall said that the plans were stale and this would help all the communities become able to participate. There are boards set up to lead economic development now.

 

Economic Development Position- $100,000 was granted for this form Lawrenceburg. It is for contracting with an independent contractor (1099 employee) for resources. This interlocal agreement was approved for Deddens to sign .

 

County Administrator Report

AIC Best Practices in Economic Development Program- $60 per person for Tuesday May 19. This is more practical hands on per Randall. It is sponsored by a national economic development group. It is happening at the same time as the auditor’s program. Rahe wants to go. Randall is going. Liz Morris has expressed a desire to go.

 

Returned Money from London Witte- Siemens from Whitewater Mills took over that payment and so this account was reimbursed. It went back into line item for professional expert fees.

 

EDI & County Website- Randall has done little with EDI website other than correct wrong information and contact info. Was hesitant to do a lot because this extra person being hired will hopefully bring more ideas to the table. The webinar she attended noted that 70% of the time people find you from the internet. EDI will have their entity dissolved by the end of the year. Unless someone wants to take it over. Some people think they should rebrand it to get some new energy. They are going to hold it until the new organization gets formed. She has found a number of companies that are good with economic development websites.

Randall also will have and economic development button on the county’s website. He also wants the DCRC info on the county website- so that board members, meetings, etc. are available.

She did a webinar by Ed Burkhardt (sp?) a retired P&G executive. He has a passion for economic development. Mark McCormack did it also. $50/person.

Randy Maxwell said he was intrigued by it. He said the governor of OH harnessed him to rebrand Ohio. You will be drilling down to what people think and how to appeal to them. All the Comp Plans seem to end up on a shelf and never get used. What’s your identity? Who are you? Insiders think one thing and those around us think we are something else. A BRAND IS NOT A SLOGAN. Don’t attach an image that is false- as when people come and see us it falls apart. DC is one of the most governed counties. So many towns and cities and commissions. We will never get everyone on the same page. You have to spoon feed and work your way to get everyone’s ideas to make it happen. The boards are made up of volunteers who have other jobs. Randall- Find out where you are before you try to figure out where you want to go.

Rahe- Have you heard about the theme- Honest to Goodness Indiana? No one had- Laughter when he commented about maybe it was because we weren’t that way here.

Maxwell said that 6 strong leads came from IEDC and they come with codes. They have responded to 3 in the last 45 days. We need to be grounded in INDY as that’s where we are governed. BUT we have to be economically centered in Cincinnati area. Automotive industry was one of these. He used it for our packet as we are in the Greater Cincinnati area. Jim McGraw a consultant from Cincinnati he talks to is always rooting for Indiana.

Randall said that OH businesses are calling her to come to IN. Do you want companies to border jump? They say they are leasing space and they need a bigger space. There are smaller companies and she sends them on but she vets out the bigger companies. She wants to bring someone to talk to this board about these possibilities. Incubator projects are hard to get going because of these small businesses. Some of these people just need a little help- not sure how to get that for them. Some people have those revolving loan plans – so some communities qualify for that.

Randall said we have had 3-4 leads in the last 60 days. I have just submitted one for West Harrison site last night. Waiting to see if we make first cut on another one.

Maxwell- said all these companies are in strict confidence but we can target the industry type they are in. Access to labor is their number one concern. West Harrison and Greendale are our best access points for the tristate. We want to hire a consultant to do an analysis of that labor market. It would be a huge benefit for us to market. We export 60% of our employees. That shows that we can locate here to get some of them.

Helms said we market the entertainment, airport, higher education from the tristate, why not the workers?[NOTE: One reason is that their payroll taxes go back to their state not to Indiana or COIT. Unless you get them to relocate here…]

Randall said we need to work on the higher education piece.

Rahe asked about the brand for tristate. Maxwell said that they are working on that. Rahe said that we are the right to work jewel in the tristate. Maxwell said that we are up to INDY so they know about us now. Important little things like the governor sits next to Rick Siemer (Whitewater Mills) at a ball game and calls Chip Perfect to congratulate him on his primary win.

Terri Randall told them that Lynch had officially resigned from this board to make this board properly constituted. She wanted to be sure to tell them that. 

They looked at Aurora Industrial Park- they need to improve sign. Probably need to get commissioners to see if Highway Dept can help. [NOTE: This is the second time this came up- no action has been taken on this still.]

 

Attorney’s Report- Mike Pence graduated from Columbus North HS in 1977. Is that the attorney report?

         

Other Business- Deaton- said that Dillsboro has hired a person to work 20 hours per week to work on economic development. Susan Greco started out as a teacher- and went into economic development. Deaton said that he hopes economic development comes to all the towns. Greco said she had applied for a part time with utilities and previously had attended this class. She was on the economic development board but terminated that to take this position. Randall is going to spend time with Susan Greco today- sharing resources.

Helms asked how Siemens and the Mills were doing. Maxwell said the slip form concrete is poured 24/7 and the buildings will be about 2/3 as high as the silos. 8 silos. Maxwell said it is pretty neat.

 

Meeting adjourned at 9:30 AM

 

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township