11 Sept 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes

11 Sept 2014 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes

Present: Dave Deddens, Chairman, Jim Helms, John Rahe, Jim Deaton, and Dennis Kraus, Sr.

ABSENT: Dusty Burress (non- voting school board member)

Also present: Terri Randall, county administrator and economic development director, Andrea Ewan, attorney, Sue Hayden, minute taker, Gayle Pennington, Auditor and DCRC treasurer.

Randy Maxwell, consultant, showed up at 8:50 AM

Minutes from August 14^th meeting approved.

Unfinished Business- Rahe asked about contacting the property owner in Aurora industrial park letter- Randall said she was on it.

Randall- Working with FTC&H on flood study. They did some modeling to look at the flood plains in Whitewater River to see if it had changed so that some parcels could come out of flood plain for FEMA. There were 2 steps in that process. They did bids and got surveys done on the river for depth at various stages in the river. That took some time. Once that data was there then FTC&H would look at the data. They wanted $5000 but she got them to agree to $4000 and has the agreement with her now. You can decide to use the report or not once it is done. She was just glad to get it down another $1000. She asked Ewan to take a look at the agreement to see if it was OK as she had just gotten it last night. Deaton asked if the areas that looked promising were the same areas that we are looking at now. Randall said that we need to look at whatever lots became available with the new study. She thinks it is a beneficial study to see what is available to pick up as parcels or options.

Rahe asked about the web page for DCRC- Randall said they’d wait to see what Oren Turner is doing on it- when he comes in at 8:30.

The discussion then went back to the agreement. Ewan said that she wanted it to have their original terms added to this agreement. Randall said it is pretty straight forward. All approved the contract with those changes. Kraus reminded her to change the $5000 to $4000 in it. Randall said that she would email it to the board to look over some more after the meeting- in case they wanted to read more and a had any objections

.

New Business: Financials- all approved. Randall clarified some was the grant fund from city of Lawrenceburg. $5065.18 was approved for claims.

Lead Economic Development Officer’s Report- already covered pretty much. She will be on vacation next week and CVTB is having their regular meeting on Tuesday at 8:30 AM at the Chamber office. DCRC has allowed them to come and ask again and make a case for the $50,000 they want CVTB to continue to fund to DCRC. A couple DCRC members will attend in her stead.

Because of reports that they had to upload to DLGF she discovered didn’t have big maps of TIFs to upload. Kunkel before he left in 2013 had done some maps. She had Planning and Zoning print them up and put them in poster frames for her office so they can use them. Red is non-TIF collecting so far and green is TIF tax producers. She will get copies of these maps to each DCRC member. This map was printed before the Mills came in. They can make changes as new ones come in. 

The Mills are set for a March 2015 open date. Randall is having lunch with them today. They are into the history of mills also and she wants to see how far they are now in construction. She said they will offer tours to DCRC members if they want to go out. Randall noted Kathy Scott in audience and brought up some of the issues regarding the chemicals used there and getting a plan for emergencies set up for the area residents and businesses. Randall is working with Bill Black and others to have a plan set up and Hazmat plan is in place. She has called all the owners of the Mill to get them at this meeting. Randall said that she knew people were working on this.

Randy Maxwell and she met with Harrison’s economic director and their mayor to touch base especially as we use their services and they benefit from some of our development. Randall said that even though they are competitors in Ohio and KY, they also cooperate on projects that benefit both areas.

Deaton said he read in INDY paper that another mill is going in up there also. This one is bigger than the one in West Harrison. Our mill reaches pretty far out for their wheat- as we can’t provide it all. Kevin Lynch is on Farm Bureau board and they stay in touch with our farmers on the grain production.[NOTE: Farm Bureau is only one way to get in touch with some farmers. County Extension, FSA, Soil and Water, and the Ag-Coop would be some others.] ADM is the company going in INDY on SE side.

Board was reminded that the farm land in the TIF was still taxed to county. The improvements in the TIF are the only things that add to the TIF coffers- anything beyond the base prior to improvements. Hirlinger is going to TIF money now. What are we doing with non- TIF parcels that we are collecting on?  [NOTE: What is that about???In Washington Township Jeff Stratman is looking into that. Apparently Aurora has a TIF there per Pennington.

Randall said that what got her onto that was looking thru all the old records for the DLGF reports. Randall thinks that maybe they should have London Witte or Umbaugh and Associates out to look at the TIFS and see if we are doing all these right.

LIST OF THE Redevelopment FINANCIAL BALANCES passed out:

Cash balance of fund 4931- $401,727.36

**Fund 4932- Commission match- $500,000

**Growth and development fund- $500,000

Fund 4301- TIF Washington Township- West Aurora- $164,357

Fund 4302-TIF St. Leon Kelso- $79.559.64

Fund 4303- TIF St Leon Harrison Township- $40,553.43

Fund 4304- TIF West Harrison- $12,502.43

**Fund 9139 Econ Development Research Grant- $95,229.76

** means the funds are restricted.

Met with realtors but we don’t have access to MLS and they do so they can help us and we help them sell properties. Oren will work with them and comb thru the real estate websites. He will prioritize properties based on which ones are in the TIF. 

She said that there are people asking about places along US 50. The 3 cities are working in those areas too. She thinks they should be getting options on more parcels. Geotech on sites and drainage is important. Some properties already have those reports. They should have those reports before they try to market. [NOTE: They should have those reports before they get options or buy parcels. It determines how valuable the property might be.]

Dennis Kraus said that economic development is to help the taxpayer so it might be more beneficial to have business outside TIF also. [NOTE: Kraus is right- why add to TIF districts if we can get business without having to give tax money away?]

Randall said - you contracted with Randy Maxwell to do the master plan for the West Harrison TIF- so he is working on that. [NOTE: Does that master plan get publicized? How does it get communicated so that existing and future business knows the plan? Oh- and do the taxpayers get to know it too?]

The big project- no news yet- but they are still in the running. 

Attorney’s Report- none

Other Business- Oren Turner on the website. They now have a link and we have a Twitter account @edidearborn

They are leaving EDI intact- Deaton asked why we are continuing EDI website etc if it doesn’t exist anymore. Randall said that using that name is still good and people know that name and site so for now they are keeping it. She also noted that they were evaluated by the mystery shopper and they said the EDI site data is stale and outdated- that needs to be updated. Oren said that he is trying to get it set up so they can look for properties on the site and the state is offering this data up for free. Deaton said the towns also have properties to offer to the right person. And Dillsboro might put in a stoplight even!

Oren said it is slowly turning into a viable website. There is a button on the county’s website for redevelopment and economic development. They need to get all the Redevelopment board members and contacts for all communities in the county. Deaton said that they need a map too on that to show all TIFs- not just the county ones. Oren said they are also communicating with Work One- so that those incentives can help with worker pools for businesses. 

Purdue will be coming tomorrow to look deeper at the stats that they can analyze for free. That is with the so called Visioning group from the 3 cities and the county. Purdue has been provided with the labor shed study that we paid for from UC and also from OKI and the zoom prospector with the state on this.

McCormack will be invited to next meeting to see what else they can do with TIF maps etc.

Rahe pushed further to get more info on the West Aurora TIF and Randall said that they have worked on the ones that have more interest. Not so many are asking for property there.

Meeting adjourned at 9:15 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township