ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, February 3, 2014
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:STAFF PRESENT:GUESTS PRESENT:

Barrett, Clark, Cohen, Elzemeyer, Green, Guiley, Hackman, Quigg, Upchurch, Warner,
Witte
Meredith
Shaffer, Doty, Geres
Burns, Denny – Wayne County Commissioner
Lane, Jeff – Kicks96
Oler, Ron – Richmond Common Council
Plasterer, Jeff – Wayne County Council
Ronald, Louise – Palladium-Item
Sowers, George – Attorney for EDC
Swain, Michael – Purdue College of Technology
Thurlow, Kim – Ivy Tech Community CollegeCALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Cohen 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, February 3rd, 2014, in room 214 at Purdue College of Technology inTom Raper Hall.
PURDUE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Cohen introduced Michael Swain, Director of Purdue College of Technology who spoke to the board about Purdue andways the college can be of assistance to economic development.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Cohen stated the minutes from the January 6th board meeting were on pages 2 - 4 of the board packet and allowed
time for the board to review them. Motion by Green, second by Quigg to approve the January 6th, 2014 minutes aspresented. Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Elzemeyer reported the EDC was under budget for the month of January by $20,760.39. He reported on changes to thebudget, that rather than divide each line item by 12 for the month, some items that are paid annually or quarterly werebudgeted accordingly and we should report less monthly overages this year because of this. Motion by Upchurch,second by Green to approve the January 2014 financial statement as presented. Motion carried.
EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported on the cost of living survey data collection and changes in insurance. Shaffer added the cost ofliving survey is very important for our organization as we are able to demonstrate the cost of living in Richmondcompared to other cities and that a tool is available on our website to calculate Richmond’s cost of living compared toother cities across the US.
Doty – Doty reported on work done associated with the strategic plan, such as preparing for the presentation, pushing itout on different social media tools, and working with IronGate Creative to add links on the homepage to the plan andsurvey. She reported on ACT Work Ready training that she’d be attending a make-up session this month with other
Midwesterners who missed the training in January due to inclement weather and would be presenting a PowerPoint
presentation on Wayne County’s progress. Lastly she reported on Google Analytics about traffic to the EDC’s website.
Shaffer –Shaffer reported there was an uptick of project activity in January with two new projects: Alumni andCarnivore. Project Carnivore started with a direct call from the company and a site visit 1.5 weeks later. For the site visit
she assembled a great team for discussions including Sarah Mitchell of the City of Richmond, Acacia St. John ofWorkOne, and Kim Thurlow of Ivy Tech Corporate College as the company has ‘good local workforce’ high on their list of
criteria for a site. After the visit, Mary Walker of the Wayne County Tourism Bureau accompanied her and the company

representative on a tour of Richmond as ‘quality of place’ is also very important to the company. Finally, the site visitconcluded with dinner. Bill Quigg, EDC board member, and also owner/president of Richmond Banking accompanied her
to dinner with the prospect and was able to discuss doing business and food processing in Richmond, Indiana. She
reported Project Alpine requested a second RFI. She reported there were 3 new BR&E projects last month. She reported
on Berry Plastics expansion, that the company had a previous incentive agreement to comply with and they did notmeet their numbers and rather than incentivize the new project and request the EDIT money back from the older
project she’d be extending the compliance period of the first project. Lastly she reported on the position statement fromthe Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce about RP&L rates. She allowed Quigg to speak on this topic as he is thechair of the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce’s Issues and Advocacy committee. Quigg stated after several
discussions with Jim French, GM of Richmond Power & Light, he determined there were 2 major issues here: 1. Lack ofcommunication and 2. Rates. After doing a rate study, Bill realized we aren’t as competitive as we previously thought,that other Midwestern cities, Ft. Wayne, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Charleston all offer lower electrical rates and all are forprofit utilities. Shaffer added low cost power is a huge economic driver and encouraged the board to keep a pulse on
this issue.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Finance – Elzemeyer reported the committee reviewed January financials prior to the board meeting.
B. Executive – Cohen reported the committee met on January 24th and heard an EDIT request from the City ofRichmond, discussed changes in the By-Laws, and discussed moving back the annual meeting to April. Valerieadded the City of Richmond has since withdrawn the EDIT application and Mayor Sally Hutton would be funding
the project out of the City of Richmond’s EDIT funds.
OTHER BUSINESSA. Wayne Bank Resolutions
Elzemeyer reported the minutes last month did not state Shaffer as a signer and that Wayne Bank drafted
resolutions stating the signers would be: Valerie Shaffer, Jim Cohen, Nancy Green, Lee Elzemeyer, and Paul Witte.
Hackman pointed out the resolution stated, “that any one of such agents is authorized to endorse all checks…”Sowers stated the word ‘one’ can be crossed out and changed to ‘two’. Motion by Green, second by Quigg toapprove all four resolutions as presented with the change stated above. Motion carried.
B. First Merchant Trust Resolution
Shaffer reported the First Merchant Trust Resolutions were included in the board packet stating the EDC would
make contributions equal to 5% salary to the staff’s 403(B) retirement plans and that the EDC would not makematching contributions to the plan. Guiley questioned the date of 2013 on the resolutions. Geres stated this form
was drafted and requested by First Merchants and follows suit of what was done in previous years. Motion byUpchurch, second by Green to approve both resolutions as presented. Motion carried.
C. Strategic Plan Next Steps
Shaffer reported the contract with Wayne County requires that both the Wayne County Commissioners and Wayne
County Council approve the strategic plan and she would be seeking endorsements from both entities once they’ve
had time to review the plan. She discussed having a board retreat to discuss the implementation of the plan anddeveloping sub-committees to look into private funding and also lease considerations as our current lease withWayne Bank ends this year. Quigg stated the board hadn’t yet endorsed the plan and requested they be able to doso before taking it to the Commissioners and Council. It was decided Geres would poll the board for available times
to meet in the next few weeks to review the plan in detail with the full board. Shaffer also encouraged the board tolet her know of any questions from the community about the plan and things that might need clarification.
D. Board Meeting Locations
Shaffer reported after having more dialogue at January’s board meeting she decided to hold the remainder of theboard meetings (except for the annual meeting) at the EDC office.
ADJOURNMENT
Cohen adjourned the meeting at 5:06 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING –Monday, March 3, 2014, at EDC of Wayne County, Richmond, Indiana at 4:00 p.m.