ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, March 7, 2016
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:Barrett, Clark, Elzemeyer, Frame, Green, Jackson, Parker, Russell,Upchurch, Warner, Witte

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:Cohen

STAFF PRESENT:Shaffer, Doty, Henry, Geres

GUESTS PRESENT:

Martin Emery, Millicent – Palladium-Item
Plasterer, Jeff – Wayne County Council
Sowers, George – Attorney for EDC

CALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Witte called the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Corporationof Wayne County, Indiana to order at 4:01 p.m. on Monday, March 7, 2016, in the EDC board room.
Witte welcomed new board member Josh Russell who was appointed by the Wayne County Council. Joshprovided a brief introduction.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Witte stated the minutes from the February 1st, 2016 board meeting were on pages 2 - 4 of the board
packet. Motion by Green, second by Frame to approve the February 1st, 2016 minutes as presented.
Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Warner reported the treasurer’s report could be found on pages 5-10 of the board packet. He reported
the EDC was under budget $4,531.96 for the month of February and $4,839.93 YTD. He reported on theitems over budget for the month and year and explained that all would catch up by the end of the year.
Motion by Upchurch, second by Jackson to accept the February 2016 financials as presented. Motion
carried.
EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported on the EDC being a Data Center Affiliate with the Indiana State Data Center andthat she’s had many requests for data over the past few months. She reported on researching data andcompleting the RFI for Project Sailfish, updating data for the new website, preparing for the annual
meeting, working closely with the Earlham intern Youxi Zhou, entering project data from 2009-present
into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, and finishing up the installation of the conference room IT. Shealso reported the EDC would be awarding Gunty Atkins as the ‘Partner in Economic Development’ thisyear for assisting us with the production of maps for projects. She also reported the annual meeting would
be moved from April to May.
Henry – Henry reported on connecting Osborn International and Janesville Acoustics to the RHS Career
Center. He has connected 6 employers to date. He also has connected with Northeastern High School andplans to connect them with industry. They are also interested in holding a career fair. He reported onmeeting with Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership and learning about their interest in helping todevelop the local workforce and assisting manufactures in becoming more efficient and cost effective. He
reported on the Hometown Opportunity website presentation and that it was well received by those inattendance. He reported on meeting 89% of the work ready goals for the designation. Bob Hayes reportedto him that he has about 31 transitioning to come off the goal, leaving 32 transitioning left to receive thedesignation. The deadline to gain the 32 is the end of April. He reported Ivy Tech has been testing Wayne
County citizens, but since they are not registered with the ACT program, the scores do not count towards
our goals. Henry is working to get this fixed so the scores do count. He reported on attending 9 BRE visits
and working with Shaffer on a business development plan for 2016.
Doty – Doty reported on the Site Selection ads and displayed them on the screen for the board to view.
In a survey of national site selectors, Richmond was ranked 13th, and we are using this ad to promote theranking and other successes in Wayne County. We were able to obtain one full page ad and one ½ pagead for the price of just a full page ad. She reported that the experience with OnVine Media has been goodand has been going smoothly. She reported on gaining 50 Twitter followers thus far and to expect a moredetailed report from Phil later in the year. She reported on being privileged to be the guest speaker for
the Cambridge City Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting. She reported Phil produced a slideshow ofthe event and posted on social media. She reported on a new Brightside story coming out and the laststory about Bed Butler was picked up by a news wire service and we gained a lot of exposure, but they
ran the story in its entirety and did not link back to our website. Because of this we can’t track how largeof an exposure was gained through Google analytics.
Shaffer – Shaffer reported Project Dove continues to move forward in a positive manner. Richmond is oneof two communities being considered for the project, but Richmond is the primary site. If everythingcontinues to move forward in a positive manner, we will be the site for the project. The company plans toinvest $147M with $58.5M being in real estate and the remaining $88.5M being in manufacturing andoffice equipment, furniture, fixtures, etc. They plan to hire 165 full time employees, compensate at anaverage wage of $17/hour excluding benefits, and be in full production by 2018. The company and DesignGroup will be in town for 2.5 days to meet with city, county, and state officials about the details of theproject. Shaffer reported if Project Dove chooses the MIP as their site, we will no longer have room toaccommodate Project Horizon. She reported Project Autumn continues to show interest in the 30
remaining acres to the east of Industries Road in Phase II. Project Acreage continues to be active and isfor a local company looking for warehouse space. She reported Project Sailfish made a site visit with
Norfolk Southern and is interested in a rail served site. She reported on the Western Wayne sanitarycapacity constraints and thanked Bob Warner for his help with the project. They have held several
meetings with Wayne County officials, Sugar Creek, and the Western Wayne Regional Sanitary District andfeels they are reaching a scope on the project. She reported on hearing from Gabi from Omen thatconstruction is moving along nicely.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Finance – Warner reported the finance committee met on March 3rd, reviewed the general ledger,
and held a long discussion on the Hometown Opportunity project that would be reported on later
under other business.
B. Executive – Witte reported the executive committee also met on March 3rd and discussed many ofthe items already touched upon in the staff reports in addition to discussing the soil borings to becompleted by Patriot Engineering for the Gaar-Jackson Road upgrades.

C. Industrial Park – Warner reported the committee also met on March 3rd and discussed WesternWayne sanitary challenges, industrial park expansion opportunities, and road enhancements to GaarJackson Road.
D. Marketing and Communication Committee – Green reported the committee met on March 2nd anddiscussed the Site Selection ads, the Hometown Opportunity project, received an update on social
media, voted to renew the Brightside MOU with Mike Bennett, discussed the Business In Focus
opportunity, and reviewed the 2016 marketing plan.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. Hometown Opportunities MOU
Shaffer and Henry reported on the Hometown Opportunities partnership with Randolph and JayCounties that they were approached with. This is a website that is an employee recruitment toolthat just focuses on a small geographic area. Currently Mercer, Auglaize, and Darke are in apartnership for the Hometown Opportunities website. Our website would have a different nameand branding. Mercer, Auglaize, and Darke have had great success with the website and have evenused it to gain an attraction project and bring back talent to the area. There is also a career pathcomponent and ways companies can promote themselves. Costs are $25,000 per year per county
for the first year and $15,000-$18,000 per year per county each year after that. Shaffer proposedusing $10,000 from the EDC marketing budget this year, with the remaining possibly coming fromthe City of Richmond, the Wayne County Foundation through the spring grant cycle, and the Wayne
County Area Chamber of Commerce’s ABC grant. The original MOU presented was for a 3 year
commitment, but the EDC contract with Wayne County expires December 31, 2016 and per thecontract we cannot enter into any agreement past the extent of our contract. Randolph and Jay
Counties have agreed to revise the MOU for a commitment through December 31, 2016. Motion byUpchurch, second by Elzemeyer to recommend approval of the revised contract for the remainder of2016 contingent upon securing additional funding. Motion carried.
ADJOURNMENT
Witte adjourned the meeting at 5:04 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING – Monday, April 4, 2016
at EDC of Wayne County, Richmond, Indiana at 4:00 pm