ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 4, 2018
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:

Frame, Golden, Jackson, Leisure, Russell, Salazar, Warner, Witte, Yaeger

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

Barrett, Parker, Templin

STAFF PRESENT:Shaffer, Mitchell, Geres

STAFF ABSENT:

Doty

GUESTS PRESENT:

Borchers, Steve – Wayne County Foundation
Clark, Len – Wayne County Foundation Board Chair
McClane, Brenda – Hometown Media Group
Nicholson, Eric – Richmond Neighborhood Association
Oler, Ron – Richmond Common CouncilSowers, George – EDC Attorney

CALL TO ORDERBoard Chair Frame 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, June 4, 2018 in the EDC board room.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Frame stated the minutes from the April 2, 2018 board meeting were on pages 2-4 of the board packet
and the minutes from the May 14, 2018 annual meeting were on pages 5-8 of the board packet. Motion
by Witte, second by Russel to approve the April 2, 2018 minutes as presented. Motion carried. Motion bySalazar, second by Jackson to approve the May 14, 2018 minutes as presented. Motion carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT
A. April and May 2018 Financial Report
In the absence of Parker, Warner provided the treasury report. He reported on being under budget$4,159.19 for the month of April and $59,489.14 YTD as of 4/30/18. He reported on being over budget$1,200.68 for the month of May and under budget $58,288.46 YTD. He reviewed the line items overbudget for the month and year. Motion by Russel, second by Witte to approve the April 2018 financials.
Motion carried. Motion by Yaeger, second by Jackson to approve the May 2018 financials. Motion
carried.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Executive – Frame reported the committee met twice since the last board meeting and discussed
the Forward Wayne County initiative, Home in Wayne, the Food and Beverage Tax, Regional
Stellar, Industrial Park updates, and reviewed compliance reports for Janesville Acoustics, Hill’s Pet
Nutrition, and Grafcor.
B. Industrial Park – Warner reported the committee met in April, but not May. He reported they
discussed the WWRSD, Gaar Jackson Road, Midwest Industrial Park Phase I Site Planning, Wetland
Delineation and the RP&L Substation.

C. Marketing and Communication – Shaffer provided the committee report for the Marketing andCommunication committee meeting. She reported they discussed the Home in Wayne campaign
and walked through the proposal. They discussed enhancing the website and trimming down thevideos to one.
EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported on working on the annual meeting, completing the RFI and submitting a site for
Project Forte, working with Gunty and local utilities to see about submitting for Projects Neptune andOriole, and following up on Project Sunrise. She deferred to the written report for her other activities
completed.
Mitchell – Mitchell reported on working the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce job fair atNortheastern with the Business and Education Committee. She reported on meeting with Nettle Creek
Schools along with Valerie to discuss Work Keys testing. She has started the registration process toadminister the Work Keys and then will begin to look for a proctor. She also reported assisting the Eastern
Indiana Regional Planning Commission with their Regional Stellar application. She reported our region is
1 of 6 finalists and has been awarded a $20,000 planning grant for assistance with the application tocompete for $15M-$20M. She also reported on attending a meeting with the Industrial Park
subcommittee who is working on the wetland delineation as well as Beals-Moore on a proposal to mitigate
the wetlands and site planning for Phase I of the Midwest Industrial Park. She reported starting to work
on FindaJobFriday and meeting with educators to set up a schedule for the fall. She reported on anupcoming meeting with Sherm Johnson from the Indiana Department of Corrections to discuss how totrain and certify the 192 individuals soon to be re-entering Wayne County. She also reported on attending
Basic ED training, meeting with the Richmond Sanitary District to discuss changes coming to thepretreatment ordinance, and attending BRE visits with Shaffer.
Shaffer – Shaffer reported leads have slowed down from about 10/month to 2/month. She also updated
the board of the upcoming Blue Buffalo ribbon cutting on September 13. She reported on attending theIAMC Spring forum that happens twice per year and is a great conference to network with industrial realestate brokers and site selectors and to learn about economic development trends. She reported onhaving 26 meaningful conversations at this conference. She also reported on attending the Area
Development Forum 25 conference where she received a sponsorship to attend from Hoosier Energy.
There were 10 consultants at this event she was able to network with. She reported on meeting with theIndiana Foreign Trade Zone organization to learn more about this widely unused tool that is a federally
designated program. She plans to identify large importers to talk more about the program and perhaps
send out an eblast to area employers. She met with a community leadership group to discuss the next
steps for the Elder-Beerman building vacancy. She reported the State’s Next Level Jobs program has
made some changes and increased the assistance from $2,500/employee to $5,000/employee andmade it available to incumbent workers as well. She reported the region earned a $1.28M Skill-Up grantto spread out amongst 18 employers. The grant was specific to each employer who participated fromthe beginning and includes local employers: Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Blue Buffalo, Nixon Tool, Reid Health,and Primex. $75,000 would be set aside for an innovation grant. Lastly, she reported on continuing todiscuss the Connersville option with WWRSD and Connersville. The preliminary engineering report isunderway.

OTHER BUSINESSA. Forward Wayne County
Shaffer introduced Len Clark and Steve Borchers from the Wayne County Foundation to talk about
the Forward Wayne County program. Their vision is to hire someone to spearhead and take chargeof many of the initiatives and goals that will address population decline, low income levels andattract a better workforce. They have gained many financial commitments and have started togather resumes for this position. They are seeking $10,000/year for a 3-year period from the EDIT
consolidated fund as city/county buy-in for this initiative. Wayne County Council has requested theEDC board review and approve first, then take to the Wayne County Commissioners for theirapproval. There was some dialogue about whether to table the approval, but the board ended up
making a motion to approve. Motion by Witte, second by Leisure to approve funding $10,000/year
out of EDIT consolidated for the Forward Wayne County initiative. Motion carried. The request will
now go before the Wayne County Commissioners for final approval on Wednesday.
ADJOURNMENT
Frame adjourned the meeting at 4:58 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING – Monday, July 9, 2018
at EDC of Wayne County, Richmond, Indiana at 4:00 pm