12 February 2015 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes

12 February 2015 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes

Present: Dave Deddens, Chairman, Jim Helms, John Rahe,  and Randy Lyness.

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

Jim Deaton absent

Randy Maxwell Absent

Dusty Burress Absent

The January 9 minutes were approved.

Terri Randall welcomed Randy Lyness to the board as Kraus’s replacement.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Property on Randall Avenue- The widow is still interested and Doug Denmure has not returned Terri’s call yet. She will continue to pursue that. Again.

CLAIMS AND FINANCIALS

Oren Turner 2 payments approved

$3783.87 for Seitz for bond renewal

Maxwell Epop studio etcTypical expenditures approved.

TIF balances were also read into the record by Deddens. Also the other funds balances were read. 

NEW BUSINESS:

1099 for Stone Property- the farm revenue from that is about $3000 for the rent comes to the county as the county owns it now.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICER’S REPORT

Support letter for Gennessee and Wyoming IRSF application- this is a grant that the railroad is pursuing. She drew up the letter and sent it out as it was time sensitive. She wrote it from herself and said she was speaking on the DCRC’s behalf. She apologized for not going thru a more formal process. [NOTE:Letters sent on behalf of any county board should have the approval of that board.] 

REDI Cincinnati’s visit and Lunch and Learn- She said there was a man there Mr Singer who will come out to view our properties and RFQs and how to respond to those. She has already received our first lead though we have no property suitable for it. They are going to do a lunch here and getting others in the county here for that. Lunch is 11:30-1 Meeting is 10. She will have Randy Maxwell there. Date is Feb 26th.

Siemer Mills- we had sponsored a grant for $100,000 to the state for a railroad spur. They are pulling together their receipts and because we are administrating the grant we will handle those.

Commissioners approved the highway engineer to go to Council to get matching funds for Bright -I-74 connector. There will be nothing happening until the proposal goes  out later this year. It will be about a year to get results.

Randall and Lynch went to a Cincinnati conference for all leaders and administrators in the region. She said it was really neat to network with all these people. It was good to get all the information and see what every one else is doing. They are going to do 4 of these across the year.

Randall went to the REDI meeting and she will send the board their Powerpoint presentation of all their successes. They welcomed Dearborn County to the group. It was incredibly warm welcome for us.They were so glad Indiana was finally present. [NOTE: Perhaps the $10,000 fee to sit at the table helped spread the warm response.] Mary Stegeman was leading Agenda 360 the group that brought the World Choir to Cincinnati. She said that Indiana was not mentioned in their work before and now she is coming out to visit and help us. A lot of this is due to Commissioner Lynch now that he is the president of OKI. For whatever reason we are now being included.

Green Umbrella- a grass roots effort to bring trails all over the area. Margaret Minzner (former county GIS) and Jack Sutton (head of Hamilton County Parks)- were in this also and they are also residents of the county. We are included in the maps. Pretty exciting what they are thinking about doing per Randall. There are a lot of great monies for these programs. Drees and other developers know that people want these walking trails. Greendale has applied for a grant thru the state Health Dept. to fund a study around walking trails for $20,000.

Terri has an email she received this morning from Randy Maxwell. He is terminating his consulting contract with DCRC effective Feb 28. He wants to concentrate on the private sector now. He will be available for services if the board needs him though. He will stay involved in Project Platform. She thinks that everything down in West Harrison appears to be in the flood plain and will require significant work. The project that is still out there- we are still in the running for it. Deddens wanted to know what McGraw said. Terri said she pushed back and had to draw a line in the sand- and she wanted an update on where they were in the process. The incentives cannot be held indefinitely. The DCRC Board accepted Randy Maxwell’s resignation. 

From: Randy Maxwell

Date: February 11, 2015 at 7:32:21 PM EST

To: Terri Randall

Subject: Consulting Agreement Termination

Terri,

Per our recent conversation, I would like for this email to serve as official notice of termination of our consulting agreement with the county. I would like to finish out the month of February with the upcoming REDI Cincinnati visit and a few loose ends we are working on. I would also like to stay engaged as needed to assist in responding to leads and to continue our work as needed for project Platform.

I am proud of what we have accomplished over the past 14 months. At this point I have decided to continue to focus on the private side of real estate development in and around our County.

Sincerely,

Randy Maxwell

John Rahe wanted to know if they should have the REDI lunch and learn across the street from IVY Tech. Randall said it is up to you since you all (?? the individuals or the DCRC?) are paying for the lunch. They said they could have the meeting and then have a smaller lunch with the smaller group. Do we want to impress them a little bit. We could do the Country Club. Randall said they had contacted a caterer that IVY Tech uses- trying to keep it low cost. Lawrenceburg is very interested in coming.Some thoughts on using event center. Deddens and Helms have a conflict that day so they won’t be there. [NOTE: Is the DCRC allowed to spend money on lunches and guests? the State Board of Accounts generally frowns on this type of expenditure.]

ATTORNEY’S REPORT- nothing

OTHER BUSINESS- Rahe asked about the connector road and wondered if the congestion on US 50 isn’t a higher priority. Randall said that she’d have Commissioner Lynch call him about that. This connector is more a local Dearborn project with some help from the state. This is using dollars that can only be used for these type of projects. The US 50 project is more like something a Blue Ribbon panel works on- big road projects. To get those projects we have to have plans down in advance. This is why McCormack is working on the Master Plan- and it will have an economic development component. That will help complete for these monies. She encouraged Rahe to talk with Lynch again. Rahe went on about the outer loop area again and how we don’t have a lot of land for development. She said McCormack’s group will be a big asset to this development and she has been working very closely with him. 

April 17th- Friday- Whitewater Mill Grand Opening ribbon Cutting ceremony. Ted McKinney state director of Ag and Lt Governor will be coming so far. Pence’s schedule can’t be locked in- so they won’t commit. Randall thought it was better to go with a sure thing. The Lt Gov gets around a lot so they are planning it around her schedule. 

ADJOURNMENT - 9:45 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township