ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, April 2, 2018
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:Frame, Golden, Jackson, Leisure, Russell, Salazar, Templin, Warner,Witte, Yaeger

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

Barrett, Parker

STAFF PRESENT:

Shaffer, Doty, Mitchell, Geres

GUESTS PRESENT:

Burns, Denny – Wayne County Commissioner
McClain, Brenda – Hometown Media Group
Oler, Ron – Richmond Common Council
Plasterer, Jeff – Wayne County Council
Sowers, George – EDC Attorney

CALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Frame called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Corporationof Wayne County, Indiana to order at 4:04 p.m. on Monday, April 2, 2018 in the EDC board room.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Frame stated the minutes from the January 8, 2018 board meeting were on pages 2-3 of the board packet.
Motion by Witte, second by Russel to approve the February 5, 2018 minutes as presented. Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
A. February and March 2018 Financial Report
In the absence of Parker, Warner provided the treasury report. He reported on being under budget$46,795.17 for the month of February and $47,203.26 YTD as of 2/28/18. He reported on being underbudget $9,326.69 for the month of March and $56,529.95 YTD. He reviewed the line items overbudget for the month and year. Motion by Frame, second by Leisure to approve the February 2018
financials. Motion carried. Motion by Jackson, second by Golden to approve the March 2018
financials. Motion carried.
B. Approval of Proposed Transfers / Copier Purchase
Warner reported the EDC needed to purchase a copier as their older one of ten years broke and Office
Shop cannot fix it as there are no parts. The total cost of the copier is $5,240. The EDC is requesting atransfer of $4,800 from 3374 Rent-Building & Structures to 4440 Office Equipment and $440 from3320 Contractual/Professional to 4440 Office Equipment to cover the expense of the copier.
Motion by Yaeger and second by Witte to approve the transfer and copier purchase. Motion carried.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Executive – Frame reported the committee met on February 22nd and reviewed an audit from
Wolverine Worldwide, reviewed three compliance reports, and discussed the Janesville Acoustics
closure. He reported the committee also met on March 27th and heard a presentation from Steve
Borchers about the Forward Wayne County initiative, reviewed five compliance reports, talked
about Home in Wayne and the EDC annual meeting.

B. Industrial Park – Warner reported the committee met on February 22nd and were provided
updates on WWRSD, Gaar Jackson Road, and site planning for MIP Phase I. The committee did notmeet in March.
C. Marketing and Communication – Doty reported that Phil Quinn is the chair of the committee, but
she would be providing the updates to the board. She reported the committee met on February 7
where Irongate Creative provided a detailed presentation on Phase II of Home in Wayne. Shereported the committee would be meeting again this coming Wednesday on April 4th, 2018.
EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported working on the annual meeting and noted the change of the date and venue toMonday, May 14, 2018 at 11:30 am at Lingle Hall. She reported being very business with project leads andRFIs and responding to 10 of them in February and March, updating the sites and buildings database,
updating the Midwest Industrial Park brochure, cross-training Sarah Mitchell, working with the intern,participating in job fairs, and relinquishing the GIS liaison responsibility to Sarah who has more of aninterest in GIS.
Black – Spring intern Michael Black reported he was an Earlham student in his senior year and wasspending half of his time interning with the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce and the other halfwith the EDC of Wayne County. He reported working on soil reports for each site location, officeorganization by scanning older files so they can be viewed digitally, researching data on climate, housing,jobs, salaries, etc, working on a higher education piece and researching majors, degrees, and enrollment,
and working on invoices and accounts payable.
Mitchell – Mitchell reported working with the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business
Education Committee on the high school job fairs where there were 40 booths, 250 students attending atRHS, and another 400 expected at Northeastern. She met with each of the 40 companies at the job fair
and talked to them about Hoosier Opportunity and Home in Wayne. She reported also attending job fairs
at Ivy Tech and the Boys and Girls Club. She reported on meeting with Valerie and Vicki DeMao on the Lilyapplication and CIS funding, attending BRE visits with Valerie, working with Jeff Plasterer on the stellar
grant for the East Indiana Regional Planning Commission, that she also has joined. She worked on therelocation of the tornado siren in the Midwest Industrial Park. She attended GIS training for the new Arc
GIS Pro.
Doty – Doty reported working on an article about Home in Wayne and Hoosier Opportunity for the Wayne
County Area Chamber of Commerce’s monthly publication. She reported on spending time with Sarah toreview her responsibilities with her. She worked on an end-of-year eblast to promote Hoosier Opportunity
and the fact that the site is getting visitors, with 77,000 to the site to date. She posted a new Brightsidestory about Earlham’s EPIC advantage program, started the annual report, met with Tracie Upchurch andValerie about the concierge program, ordered promotional materials for Hoosier Opportunity for the job
fairs, and met with the partners of Hoosier Opportunity to discuss strategy.
Shaffer – Shaffer reported on the ECI Livability ad that everyone had a copy of at their seat. This is apublication produced by the regional ED group, East Central Indiana Regional Partnership (ECIRP), toshowcase the quality of life in the region. Shaffer reported Richmond was highlighted on page 55 andthe ad shared with the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce and Wayne County Tourism Bureau
was on page 14. Shaffer reported being very busy with business development, responding to 10 leads
from direct sources, IEDC and ECIRP, and hosting one site visit. She attended seven BRE visits with Sarah,
visited with the Western Wayne School District and the Excel Center. She continues to work onworkforce development initiatives and shared the barriers she is experiencing with WorkKeys testing,which is one variable in our ACT Work Ready Community initiative. ACT has made significant changes
and WorkOne can no longer administer and proctor the testing. She is looking into the EDC becoming
the administrator. The other barrier is the price of the tests. It was originally $24/student for thoseunder 18 years old to test and that has been raised to $43/student. Lastly, she reported on joining theIndiana Economic Development Association (IEDA) Board of Directors.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. Home in Wayne
Renee reported on the Holiday – Home in Wayne micro-campaign:• creation of the homeinwayne.com website• creation of the Instagram account for use of the #homeinwayne populated with content
from the community, 127 followers, 204 uses of #homeinwayne• posters, coasters, and table tents to 20+ restaurants and bars (coasters reordered for springwith spring colors)• billboard in the Gateway Industrial Park• direct mail to 992 empty nesters• featured in the RHS alumni newsletter• radio ads on G101.3 and Kicks96• ad in the ECI Livability magazine
She reported on Google Analytics for the website:• 338 users• 473 sessions• 2.28 minutes, average time spent• 337 new visitors, 772 returning visitors• visitors from communities of Richmond, Indianapolis (30), Hagerstown (11)• visitors from top 3 states of Kentucky (60), Illinois (30), and Ohio (15)• visitors to pages: joy (146), work (146), dwell (144), live (127), learn (103), and launch (102)
She reported the marketing committee would be meeting this coming Wednesday to discuss the next
phase of the Home in Wayne campaign.
ADJOURNMENT
Frame adjourned the meeting at 5:01 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING – Annual Meeting
Monday, May 14, 2018 at Lingle Hall, Richmond, Indiana at 11:30 am