ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 5, 2017
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:Barrett, Elzemeyer, Frame, Jackson, Leisure, Parker, Russell, Salazar,Witte, Yaeger

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

Upchurch, Warner

STAFF PRESENT:

Shaffer, Doty, Henry, Geres

GUESTS PRESENT:

Oler, Ron – Richmond Common Council
Shuey, Mickey – Palladium-Item

CALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Jackson called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Economic Development
Corporation of Wayne County, Indiana to order at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, June 5, 2017 in the EDC boardroom.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Jackson stated the minutes from the April 3, 2017 and May 5, 2017 board meetings were on pages 2-7 ofthe board packet. Motion by Witte, second by Barrett to approve the April 3, 2017 minutes as presented.
Motion carried. Motion by Elzemeyer, second by Leisure to approve the May 5, 2017 minutes as presented.
Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Elzemeyer reported on being under budget $1,101.68 MTD for April and $29,164.91 YTD as of April 30,
2017. He reported on being under budget $4,766.61 MTD for May and $33,931.52 YTD as of May 31,
2017. He reported on items over budget for the month and year and stated they would all catch up by theend of the year, with the exception of 1369 – Long-Term Disability, which would need a transfer. Motion
by Witte, second by Frame to approve the April 2017 financials. Motion carried. Motion by Frame, secondby Barrett to approve the May 2017 financials. Motion carried.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Finance – Elzemeyer reported the finance committee met in April and earlier in the afternoon andreviewed financials.
B. Executive – Jackson reported the executive committee met on April 27 to review grant compliancefor DOT Foods and to review the EDIT application for Silgan White Cap Corporation. They also met on
May 25 and heard an update on the Depot, WWRSD, the industrial parks, annual meeting feedback,and discussed the JASI sponsorship.
C. Industrial Park – Shaffer reported the industrial park committee met and discussed WWRSD andupdates in the MIP.
D. Marketing and Communication – Doty reported the committee met and discussed Hoosier
Opportunity, the Model T Brightside Story, the ad in the Indiana magazine, the food processing
microsite, changing the domain to whywaynecounty.com, the redesign of the business cards, andheard and update on the move.

EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported on preparing for the move, the annual meeting, completing another cost of living
survey, updating data on the fact book, website, and key performance indicators, working with Valerie on
various business attraction projects, and community involvement.
Henry – Henry reported on the Find a Job Friday initiative where employers would get into the schoolcafeterias on Fridays. He reported success of the first Friday with Primex and RHS. He reported on meetingwith Earlham College and IU East’s career placement services to talk about Hoosier Opportunity. Heattended the Earlham meeting with Anastatia of Randolph County EDC who is also an Earlham graduate.
The talked to Earlham about marketing how they both went to Earlham and stayed here after graduation.
He talked about working with Reid on their NAACP opportunity fair and being involved with Leadercast
Wayne County. He also reported on BRE visits and community engagement.
Doty – Doty reported working on the Hoosier Opportunity website, arranging interviews with reporters
and Valerie to promote the site, writing and submitting the grant application for $10,000 from the AT&T
Foundation, and working on the new story ideas for Brightside.
Shaffer - Shaffer reported in her staff update that two announcements would be coming soon. One is a
new investment project looking to locate in the former Marvel building on Industrial Parkway. Thebuilding has been vacant since 2005 or 2006. The project will start out with 7 jobs. The company is anationally known chemical distributor. The second project is a competitive consolidation project thatwould result in 47 jobs locally with 20 retained. Formal announcement by the company expected nextweek.
Shaffer also reported the EDC is working on 9 new attraction projects, with 7 of those projects coming
directly to the EDC instead of through the state. Shaffer said this is new for the EDC and demonstrates
Wayne County is starting to be known throughout the site selector community.
Shaffer reported that the following projects were still active: Pipeline Stormtrooper
 Silo – which is a Blue Buffalo supplier who will be coming to Wayne County for a visit
Shaffer reported she has made three trips between April and May: Sales trip to New York City with East Central Indiana Regional Partnership (ECIRP) to promote
the region, met with 6 site selectors
 IAMC Spring Professional Forum in Tampa – networked with site selectors, commercial realestate brokers, and company representatives, attended professional development sessions andparticipated in a dinner hosted by the State of Indiana to promote the state’s economic
development efforts
 Indiana Commercial Real Estate Conference – worked trade show booth with ECIRP to promote
the region and network with brokers from across Indiana and Ohio
Met with a team from the City of Richmond and Vectren to discuss infrastructure upgrades at the Blue
Buffalo site in Phase II of the Midwest Industrial Park. Vectren is the only utility that doesn’t go to thesite. They need to install a new regulator on Round Barn Road in order to provide service. A location forthe regulator was agreed upon. The next step is to work with BZA for the required variances to move
forward.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. EDIT Application #17-188
Silgan White Cap Corporation is investing $2.5 million in equipment upgrades. The EDC is proposing a$10,752.00 EDIT grant to be used to provide 24 hours of training for 20 employees on the newly
upgraded equipment. Silgan currently employs 108 hourly workers and 16 salaried paying an averagehourly wage of $20.91. The company expects work to be completed by the end of year. They areworking with the City of Richmond to receive a tax abatement as well. The company has received twoother EDIT grants, one in 2011 and one in 2012. Motion by Elzemeyer, second by Witte to approve EDIT
application #17-188 for $10,752 out of the consolidated EDIT fund. Motion carried.
B. Key Performance Indicators
Shaffer reported that as part of the EDC’s strategic plan activities it was determined metrics needed tobe identified to measure the progress of Wayne County and the performance of the EDC. Two
categories of metrics were identified: those the EDC could impact directly and those the EDC had nocontrol over. Indicators the EDC can directly impact are under the category titled EDC of Wayne CountyKey Performance Indicators. Those the EDC does not have control over are titled Success Indicators inWayne County Economy.
EDC of Wayne County Key Performance Indicators
 Business Retention and Expansion Visits - Shaffer reported this was not tracked in 2011 and2012. In 2013 there were 49. This year the EDC in on track to exceed 70 visits.
 Business Retention and Expansion – Shaffer reported in 2011 and 2012 there were 7 each year.
That number rose to 11 in 2015 but in 2016 there were none. This number will ebb and flow
dependent upon business activity.
 New investment activity – EDC usually sees 1 to 2 projects in any given year.
 Jobs and total capital investment are tracked and is tied to the number of projects in a year aswell as the project size.
 Shaffer reported the EDC is tracking RFIs/RFPs and site visits but need to find a different way tocalculate the percentage of projects resulting from site visits. The number is skewed due to thefrequent number of visits attached to the Blue Buffalo and Omen USA projects. The board
suggested tracking the number of unique visits as opposed to total site visits.
 Shaffer reported on interactions with site selectors and corporate real estate professionals began tracking in 2015 with 103, saw in increase in 2016 with 124
 Shaffer also reported that in tracking available shoved ready acreage the EDC saw a decrease inavailable acres with the Blue Buffalo project Shaffer reported to the board that tracking new initiatives is another metric include but haven’t
found a good way to measure the success of initiatives the EDC is involved with yet. Working onthat for the future.
Success Indicators in the Wayne County Economy
EconomyShaffer reported the average annual salary has increased since 2011 to 2016 as has the average annualwage which has gone from $16.14 in 2011 to $17.46 in 2015.

Ady Voltedge, the consulting firm hired to do the strategic plan suggested adding to the key
performance indicators the measurement of diversity of employer base. The needle hasn’t really moved
in terms of increasing the diversification of industry sectors. Josh Russell asked if there was merit inseparating out manufacturing from other sectors because the county is so heavy in manufacturing.
Shaffer agreed this might be feasible.
Location Quotients (provided in an addendum to the Key Performance Indicators chart)
Shaffer stated this shows how big of a representation specific sectors have in our county. Anything witha 1% and above is strong, anything below 1% bears watching.
Shaffer reported that the time required to get through public approvals is a hard metric to measure as
every project is different and goes through different approval processes depending on incentives andthe size of the project. She stated every incentive group would need to be broken out in order to track.
Perception
 Renee reported on the measurements used to gauge perception.
 Attendance at EDC annual meetings grew from 65 in 2011 to the low 80s in 2013 to 2016.
 Twitter began with 126 in 2013, grew to around 500 in 2015 (can’t specify exactly so that’s why
not included on chart). Started working with OnVine Media in 2016 and number grew to 764.
Currently at 798.
 Need to add Facebook to the mix – started the Brightside Facebook page in 2016 and it now has
534 followers.
 LinkedIn saw an increase in followers from 30 to 123.
 Overall pleased with social media efforts in getting the word out about EDC activities to public
and stakeholders.
 Website – numbers have dropped from when we started tracking in 2013. Based onconversations with marketing experts and OnVine Media this is believed to be attributed to theincreased social media activity reducing the need for the public to access the site forinformation. Website is geared to provide information on available buildings and sites and data
to prospects and feel that is how it’s being used.
Tax Base and Workforce
Shaffer reported data indicates tax base is increasing, but the data does not take tax abatements into
account. Local income tax revenue is increasing. The labor force remains stagnant. Increasing the labor
force is one of the goals of the Hoosier Opportunity website. Unemployment rate is decreasing and isright around 3% currently.
Education Attainment
Shaffer reported the education attainment for the county hasn’t changed much. When looking at how
well we’re doing in retaining college grads there is also really not much change. This is an area forimprovement.
Population
Shaffer reported that population is an area where we continue to lose. Salazar suggested looking at the
number of people who come into Wayne County to work who live outside of the county.
Residential Building Permits

Shaffer reported this is an area that shows positive improvement as permits have been on the rise since
2011.
Shaffer will present the data to the Wayne County Commissioners on Wednesday at their regularmeeting per the requirement in the EDC contract.
ADJOURNMENT
Jackson adjourned the meeting at 5:15 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING – Monday, August 7, 2017
at EDC of Wayne County, Richmond, Indiana at 4:00 pm