ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, October 3, 2022
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:

Bolser, Cenova, Fennimore, Frame, Johnson, King, Robinson, Tanner, Templin,Turner, Zaleski

BOARD MEMBERS VIRTUAL:Salazar

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:STAFF PRESENT:

Shaffer, Doty, Fisher, Lindsey, Mitchell

GUESTS PRESENT:

Sowers, George – EDC Counsel
Butters, MaryAnne – Wayne County Commissioner
Crist, Duane – Indiana American Water
Thurlow, Kim – IVY TechEmery, Millie – Hometown Media GroupI. CALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Jim King called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Corporation ofWayne County, Indiana to order at 4:00 p.m. on October 3, 2022.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
a. 2022 September Minutes
King stated the minutes from the September 12, board meeting are on pages 2-5. No corrections werenoted.
Motion to approve September 12, 2022, minutes as presented by Zaleski, second by Tanner. Roll call.
Motion carried.
III. TREASURER’S REPORTa. 2022 September Financial Report
Zaleski reported the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County, IN is under budget forSeptember MTD by $10,249.71 and is also under budget YTD by $79,697.39. He reviewed the September
Income Statement and stated 2221 Gasoline is over by $18.01 for the month but should be within budget
at year end; 3320 Contractual/Professional Services is over by $2,187.69 due to payment of the Brady,
Ware and Schoenfeld 2021 Annual Audit, but should be within budget at end of year; 3373 is over by$59.89 due to the 2% annual increase.
Motion to approve the September financials as presented by Robinson, second by Frame. Roll call.
Motion carried.
IV. Chair’s Report
King stated items discussed in our Executive Committee meeting will be covered under the Other Business section.
He said Shaffer will review project updates with the group later in our meeting.
V. EDC STAFF REPORTS
Fisher – Fisher reported she completed her monthly financial duties. She attended the Chamber Community
Awards event with the EDC staff. She worked with Opti-Vise, our IT group, to update Windows Operating

System on some of our computers and resolving issues with our video conferencing equipment. She and Shaffer
met to review options for entering new attractions project in Executive Pulse. She worked with Shaffer and Lindsey
to submit new attraction projects and RFI documents to IEDC.
Lindsey – Lindsey stated our National Manufacturing Day is scheduled for Friday, October 7. She said all 5 school
corporations will be participating this year. She stated that Fisher and Kim Thurlow will be with the Western
Wayne schools touring Dot Foods, Taconic and SugarCreek, while she, Shaffer, Mitchell, and Roxie Deer, are withRichmond, Centerville, Hagerstown, and Northeastern schools touring Blue Buffalo, Johns Manville, Ahaus Tool,and Primex Design & Fabrication. She also reported she completed the Jobs EQ course and will now be able tohelp with collecting labor force data for the Wayne County area.
Doty – Doty stated she prepared and distributed the news release for the Richmond Baking expansion project.
She and Shaffer are working with JobsEQ staff and IronGate to install their plug-in on our Home in Wayne website.
This new program will replace the role formerly held by the Hoosier Opportunity website. We will not have to do
any of the administrative work with this program as it is a more balanced database and will automatically pull job
postings from all the major websites. She and Shaffer met with IronGate to discuss and review the results fromthe Home in Wayne survey and will be presenting to the Marketing Committee at our next meeting which has
been reschedule for Wednesday, October 12.
Mitchell – Mitchell stated we are continuing to consult with Beals Moore on the MIP wetland mitigation andhaving them assist us with the process of the wetland and drainage issues in MIP Phase 1. She said we are finalizing
the topo survey and working with Beals Moore to send compliance documents to IDEM. The Toschlog property
purchase is complete, and she has asked the Richmond Fire Department to evaluate this property for a control
burn of all structures on this site once all tenants are vacated. She reported that Sanitation is evaluating proposals
for sewer expansion engineering. She attended the Climate Summit and the Wayne County Chamber’sImprovement Awards at Hartley Hills. She and Shaffer met with Indiana Landmarks Director of the Eastern
Regional Office. She has been working with Lindsey to promote and participate in the “Get to Work Week” forRichmond High school students for job opportunities. Zaleski asked what items need to be completed on theToschlog property. Mitchell said a sewer expansion will need to be done in phases and there is a need to upgradeto Gaar Jackson Road from N Round Barn to Salisbury Road.
Shaffer – Shaffer said we responded to 3 new attraction projects in September, and one project has planned asite visit to Richmond. We have several other projects that remain very active. Shaffer reported that she will begoing to Atlanta to present one of our sites to a prosect along with one other Indiana community and someone
from the IEDC will represent the state. Projects continue to keep us busy, and one may progress more quickly.
Shaffer said there are three potential local expansions that will most likely be moving forward as well. The teamcontinues to meet with local businesses and provide support where needed. Shaffer reported the 2022 Wage andBenefit Survey results have been compiled but we have a few corrections for Purdue to make. We should besending the survey out by the end of October. Shaffer said we will be meeting here at the EDC with the entire
READI group to discuss how we can prepare for a potential READI 2.0.
VI. Other Businessa. Nominating Committee Ballots
Shaffer asked all Board members to vote for three names on the Nominating ballot to decide who will
be on the Nominating Committee who will be tasked with selecting our 2023 slate of officers. Lindsey
tallied the votes, and our 2022 Nominating Committee will be Tim Frame, Sayward Salazar, and Jim
Tanner. King is an automatic appointment to the committee and will call a meeting. Shaffer also said wewill be sending our Board of Director reappointment/replacement letters soon.
b.

Talbot Proposition
Shaffer pulled up the map showing both Toschlog properties and the 9 acres that are owned byBarbara Talbot. Shaffer said we wanted to purchase this property, to ensure we had the entire land
owned by the Toschlog and Talbot families, and to be good neighbors, we did not want her to be
surrounded by an industrial park.
Sowers explained the purchase agreement and the Resolution Authorizing Purchase of Real Estate.

He said Mrs. Talbot wanted the Purchase Agreement from us to ensure she had the ability to purchase aplace to live before committing to sell her property.
Motion was made to the Board to approve and authorize Shaffer to sign Proposition for Barbara Talbot’s
property as presented by Johnson, and second by Tanner. Roll Call.
Motion carried.
c. Hagerstown Industrial Park Sign
Shaffer was approached by a member of the Wayne County Commissioners and Wayne County Council
regarding the poor condition of the Hagerstown Industrial Park sign and they asked if the Economic
Development Corporation could help them in replacing this sign. The funds would come from theConsolidated EDIT fund. She said we do not currently market this park, but we have recently worked
with a company interested in this park. The cost estimate is $26,287.93. Shaffer asked the board toapprove the full amount for the sign.
Motion was made to the Board to approve the requested funds for the Hagerstown Industrial Park Sign
as presented by Turner, and second by Robinson. Roll Call.
Motion carried.
d. EDC President’s 2023-2024 Contract
King said he discussed Shaffer’s 2023-2024 contract with Mayor Snow, County Council and County
Commissioners, and they all supported a 2-year contract with a 3% increase in 2023 and again in 2024.
King said they had good discussions regarding Shaffer, and they support her and the contract. He said allother items in the contract are consistent with the employee handbook and policies.
Motion was made to the Board to approve Valerie Shaffer’s 2023-2024 contract as presented by Cenova,
and second by Bolser. Roll Call.
Motion carried.

e.

2023 Budget

Shaffer said the 2023 Budget was presented to Wayne Country Council and Commissioners andBeth Leisure said there were no outstanding questions from Council. Shaffer said she reviewed
the budget line by line with our Executive Committee. Our total budget for 2023 is $746,795.41
which is a $25,188 increase over last year’s budget. She mentioned Salaries and Health Insurance
were increased the most due to one additional staff member being hired, and a dependent
coming to our Health plan in 2023. In the past two years we have returned a considerable amountof unused budget dollars back to the County. Tanner said kudos to Shaffer and her staff for
returning unused funds to the County.

Motion was made to the Board to approve the 2023 Budget as presented by Tanner, second by Bolser.
Roll Call.
Motion carried.
VII. ADJOURNMENTKing adjourned the meeting at 4:48 p.m.

NEXT BOARD MEETING – Monday, November 7, 2022, at 4:00 p.m.