ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
OF WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA
Board Meeting Minutes
Monday, February 6, 2017
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:Jackson, Leisure, Parker, Russell (by phone), Salazar, Upchurch, Warner,Witte, Yaeger

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT:

Barrett, Elzemeyer, Frame

STAFF PRESENT:Shaffer, Doty, Henry, Geres

GUESTS PRESENT:Bales, Jack – Texas Jack’s Lock, Stock and Barrel, LLC
Gregory, Ray – Richmond Casting Co.
Oler, Ron – Richmond Common Council
Shuey, Mickey – Palladium-ItemSowers, George – EDC Attorney

CALL TO ORDER
Board Chair Jackson 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 6, 2017 in the EDCboard room.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW BOARD MEMBERS
Jackson asked that new board member Sayward Salazar, appointed by Mayor Dave Snow, introduce
herself to the board. Sayward is the regional manager for Meridian Health overseeing Wayne, Fayette,and Randolph Counties.
APROVAL OF MINUTES
Jackson stated the minutes from the January 9th, 2017 board meetings were on pages 2-4 of the board
packet. Motion by Witte, second by Parker to approve the January 9th, 2017 minutes as presented. Motion
carried.
TREASURER’S REPORTIn the absence of Elzemeyer, Jackson reported on being under budget MTD and YTD by $3,197.34. Hereported on account balances: operating - $266,905.18, grant administration income - $5,931.60, andescrow - $5,033.71. Motion by Warner, second by Witte to approve the January 2017 financials. Motion
carried.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Finance – Jackson reported the finance committee met on Thursday, January 26, 2017 and reviewed
the general ledger and updated signature cards.
B. Executive – Jackson reported the executive committee also met on Thursday, January 26, 2017 anddiscussed many of items to be discussed later under other business, as well as these other topics: anEDIT compliance for Paragon Casket, an EDIT application that had been withdrawn, the office lease,
Ft. City assistance, EDIT contracts, WWRSD, and the farm lease.

C. Industrial Park – Warner reported the industrial park committee also met on Thursday, January 26,
2017 and received and update on WWRSD, talked about MIP land usage and availability, and discussed
workforce development initiatives.
EDC STAFF REPORT
Geres – Geres reported on the cost of living survey, creating a listing for the former Dana brownfield siteand submitting it for Project Ava, receiving several requests for data, and then referred them to rest ofher written report for updates.
Henry – Henry reported on working with the Excel Center on a reverse job fair. Seven employers had
confirmed with Joe that they would attend. He reported the Excel Center held a graduation on Friday,January 27th, 2017 for 41 graduates and that Valerie was the keynote speaker. He reported on working
with the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce Business Education Committee to host two job fairs,
one on March 13 for Richmond and Seton and one on March 22 at Centerville for the four county schools.
He will be presenting the new talent retention and recruitment website to the students at the job fairs.
He reported on the ACT Work Ready Community maintaining goals. There are three different types:
emerging, transitioning and current. For the emerging category we need 253 more silver or higher
certificates by November 2018, for transitioning we need 357 to pass with a silver certificate or higher,and for current we have already accomplished the goal of 99. Also needed are 66 of the 79 original
businesses to support the initiative to reaffirm support. A new piece to this goal is to get 33 test takes toimprove their scores and 24 have already done that, so we need 9 more. Lastly he reported on community
networking, BRE visits, and working with companies in compliance.
Doty – Doty reported on working on the talent recruitment website and finalizing the logo, branding, andcontent. She purchased domain names for the site and set up the hosting. She reported on working withthe partners at the East Central Indiana Partnership on a regional magazine to promote the local qualityof life, assets, and jobs. She reported on working with Omen USA and OnVine Media to promote acommunity event in which they educated the community on products they will produce.
Shaffer – Shaffer reported on Project Ava and that Alaina had put a lot of work into the project. She
reported Project Stormtrooper wrote a formal requested for a 90 day extension. We are competing withIndiana, Ohio, and Kentucky sites. She reported working on 5 BRE projects, including 3 that had initiatedin January. She reported on working with Bob Warner, Sarah Mitchell, and Beals-Moore to find moreacreage in the Midwest Industrial Park. They were able to carve out two 73 acre and 92 acre sites. This
will involve wetland mitigation and moving of a detention pond. She reported WWRSD had met anddecided to move forward with an expansion of their plant rather than sending wastewater to Connersville.
She reported the county and herself will still be engaged with the process. She reported on attending andspeaking at the Excel Center graduation where 41 students graduated. To date 200-250 have graduatedfrom Richmond’s Excel Center. She reported on attending Omen’s community event with 50 otherindividuals. It wasn’t a job fair, but most were there because they were interested in employment withthe company. She also attended the Recovery Works groundbreaking in Cambridge City.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. EDIT Application #17-185
Shaffer reported on EDIT application #17-185 for Richmond Castings. They are purchasing new moldmachinery that will retain 28 jobs and they plan to invest $545,118. Motion by Parker, second by Upchurch
to approve EDIT application #17-185 out of the consolidated EDIT fund. Witte abstained. Motion approved.

B. MIP Farm Lease
Shaffer reported on the farm lease for the Midwest Industrial Park. We lease the ground from the City ofRichmond and then sublease it out for extra income for the city. We have been leasing to Thomas
Hutchings since 2003. Typically the lease is for 4 years, but because our lease with the City of Richmondis only through 2018, we weren’t able to extend past 2 years. We decided to continue to lease with Tomfor these next two years, but would open the lease up for bidding in 2018. The lease price is for $180/acre
up from $160.25/acre on our previous lease. An additional clause was added allowing Tom to clean up
areas with brush and debris at no cost that would allow him to farm that area for no cost. Motion by Witte,second by Parker to approve the farm lease as presented. Motion carried.
C. Fountain City Purchase and Resale Agreement
Shaffer reported on being approached by Fountain City Town Council to accommodate a transfer of realestate, as we are a 501c3 and can act as a conduit for real estate transactions. The city will be transferring
the parcel of land to Jack Bales who will open a retail establishment called Texas Jack’s Lock Stock andBarrel and will sell western farm and ranch type items. Jack Bales was present and talked to the board
about his plans. Motion by Upchurch, second by Witte to approve of us entering into a purchase and realestate agreement as presented. Motion carried.
ADJOURNMENT
Jackson adjourned the meeting at 4:54 p.m.
NEXT BOARD MEETING – Monday, March 6, 2017
at EDC of Wayne County, Richmond, Indiana at 4:00 pm