ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, February 2, 2015
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:Clark, Cohen, Elzemeyer, Jackson, Green, Guiley, Meredith, Quigg
Warner

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

Barrett, Upchurch, Witte

STAFF PRESENT:

Shaffer, Doty, Geres

GUESTS PRESENT:

Benjamin, Jerry – Wayne County Citizen
Plasterer, Jeff – Wayne County Council
Sheeley, Rachael – Palladium-Item

CALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Elzemeyer called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Economic Development
Corporation of Wayne County, Indiana to order at 4:05 p.m. on Monday, February 2, 2015, in the EDC
board room.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Elzemeyer stated the minutes from the January 12th board meeting were on pages 2 - 5 of the boardpacket. Motion by Meredith, second by Green to approve the January 12th, 2015 minutes as presented.
Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Jackson referred the board to pages 6-11 of the board packet. He reported the EDC was under budget inthe current month by $22,287.33. He explained the budget was reworked – not the totals, but how they
are distributed amongst the 12 months. For example, knowing the annual payment for IT services was tobe made in January, $5,000 was budgeted for the month of January. He stated we would report lessover/under budget items this way. He reported the only item over budget this month was the utilities due
to electricity rates increasing on the lighting for the billboard in the Midwest Industrial Park.
Shaffer added Geres had reached out to Porter Advertising to try and find ways to keep the lighting costs
down. Shaffer stated Porter came back with three solutions which we would review soon, but all would
carry an initial investment. Shaffer stated one solution would be to change the type of bulbs, and Geres
added the other solutions were based on a timer turning the lights out at midnight, which is industry
standard, and then having them come back on at 6:00 am until sunrise.
Jackson continued with the financial report stating the EDC returned $76.774.15 from the operating
account and $38.28 from the discretionary account to the Wayne County Consolidated EDIT Fund. He also
reported on encumbrances: $24,000 in discretionary for the data center, $2,000 in operating for the GIS
Planning contract, and $8,695.50 in operating for the Plastics News ad placement. He reported onreceiving payment on the sale of real estate to Sugar Creek and forwarding the funds to Wayne Countygovernment.
Motion by Cohen, second by Quigg to accept the January 2015 financials as presented. Motion carried.

EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported on finalizing the RFP process for audit services, that the executive committee
accepted Jennifer North’s proposal for $6,100 for the next 2 years. Geres also reported the Zoom
Prospector application had been upgraded for mobile functionality, that Shaun Scholer, Wayne County’s
GIS Director, was working on adding local layers, that she had trained with Shaffer on the proposal
generator, and that the next steps would involve creating a template within the generator by populating
it with text, data, videos, and photos. Shaffer added that we’d create a false proposal to show everyone
what it would look like once we have it ready.
Doty – Doty reported the EDC staff met with most of the Irongate Creative staff to review and brainstorm
2015 marketing projects, most of which include changes presented from Ady Voltedge during theirwebsite audit. Changes will include a redesign of the homepage, bringing context to the data we present– creating a framework from which to view the data, and creating a business case page on food processing– similar to the plastics business case page. She reported on organizing and hosting a marketing meetingfor Manufacturing Matters. She also reported on sending out compliance packets and that most are dueback mid-February.
Green added they’ve increased their Manufacturing Matters marketing efforts to include unique ads
placed in bowling alleys, restaurants, and grocery bags. Adding that the two new PT employees hope tomake a significant impact in enrollment into the program.
Shaffer – Shaffer reported business development activity remains strong. One new project was initiatedthrough IEDC for the medical and aerospace industry. She reported Project Alpine, that had a site visit inearly December, requested another small RFI with follow-up questions. The site selector hopes to havean update by the end of February. She reported 2 executives of Project Canada Dry visited Richmond lastmonth to look at two existing buildings, but that they still had an option on land in Phase I of the Midwest
Industrial Park that was still under consideration. She reported Project Sound completed the Wayne
County project profile and IEDC’s incentive application. This project is a sister company to an existingWayne County business who has been great advocates for doing business in Wayne County, Indiana. Theproject would be an initial $11.9M invest, creation of 87 jobs, with average wages of $14.80/hour. She
reported on meeting, along with Steve Higginbotham, Sugar Creek’s new operational manager andreceiving a tour of the plant under construction. They are still on target to begin operations in July. She
reported on Sugar Creek completing the transaction for the residential sale that will be remodeled andused for executive and guest housing and meeting space. She reported on two new BRE projects: one is alocal manufacturer looking to acquire new equipment that would allow him to keep manufacturing inWayne County – currently they send goods out of state to be manufactured and another is a local
company looking to buy an existing building, which will allow them to add additional equipment. She
reported receiving 56 resumes for the new position, which will be reviewed and narrowed down by thehiring committee consisting of Cohen, Elzemeyer, Meredith, and Quigg. Lastly, she reported meeting withSusie Ripley of OCRA and Chris LaMar of Hagerstown to discuss projects that will enhance Hagerstown’s
Main Street area.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Finance – Jackson reported the finance committee met on January 22nd, reviewed the budget and GLof which there were no concerns or questions, and considered audit proposals and made a
recommendation.

B. Executive – Elzemeyer reported the executive committee also met on January 22nd, reviewed First
Merchant’s resolutions, discussed and rescheduled the annual meeting, discussed the BrightSide
MOU, received project and new position updates from Shaffer, and further discussed the jointstatement on education and funding CIS. Elzemeyer encouraged the board to share BrightSide stories
as discussed at the executive committee meeting.
C. Industrial Park – Warner reported the industrial park committee also met on January 22nd anddiscussed two main topics: industrial park expansion and existing building inventory. Warnerreiterated Shaffer’s concern that if 2-3 projects in the pipeline come to fruition, we won’t have muchleft to offer in the way of land and buildings. Warner stated the committee did discuss the idea ofspec buildings.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. First Merchant’s Resolutions
Shaffer reported on First Merchant’s required year end documents. She stated companies have until
the tax deadline to make addition contributions to their employees’ retirement plans and this is why
the documentation for the previous year is requested at the beginning of the following year. She
stated page 17 states the EDC will make a 5% salary contribution and that page 18 states the EDC
will not make matching contributions. Motion by Jackson, second by Green to accept the resolutionsas presented. Motion carried.
ADJOURNMENT
Elzemeyer adjourned the meeting at 4:33 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING – Monday, March 2, 2015
at EDC of Wayne County, Richmond, Indiana at 4:00 pm