04-04-2008 EDAMEDA Board of Directors
Meeting Minutes
7 AM Friday, April 4, 2008
(March Meeting)
Members present in bold print:
Members
Tim Ulrich Diane Gordon Steve Jansick
Casey Stotts Jim Haugen Mike McGraw
Staff
Miles Seppelt, EDA Director
I. Call to Order
Tim Ulrich called the meeting to order at 7:01 AM.
II. Approve Agenda
No action
III. Review Meeting Minutes
A. February 22nd Board of Directors
Marc Vaillancourt
M /S /P: Haugen, Vaillancourt to approve the minutes as written. Passed
unanimously.
B. February 20th Finance Team
M /S /P: McGraw, Haugen to approve the Finance Team minutes as written.
Passed unanimously.
IV. Review February Financial Statements — Ken Merrill
EDA Director Miles Seppelt provided the following report:
January Report
• Cash available for operations is $143,136
• Both the Warrior Mfg. & Customer Elation mortgages for the land write -down
program are shown.
• We had $500 in rental income for the month.
• Wages & benefits totaled $9,158
• Economic Development Loan fund had $91,805 in cash available
• Ashwill Industries & Warrior Mfg. loans are performing as required.
• Downtown loan fund has $420,705 in cash available.
• Downtown loan fund currently has $662,381 in mortgages outstanding.
• Loan repayments as of January 31St have totaled $11,729.
• $4,850 in downtown grants has been awarded.
• $50,000 has been paid to Cenex from the Downtown Loan Fund as part of the
fertilizer plant acquisition.
■ MIF loan fund currently has $13,000 in cash available from Warrior loan
repayments and the outstanding balance on the loan is $188,673.
February Report
■ Cash available in operations is $133,088
■ Total of mortgages held as part of the land write -down program is $166,399.
■ $500 in rental income was received from the Wetherell property.
■ Wage / benefit expense for the month totaled $9,406.
■ $1,012 was spent on professional services, relating to the development of the
new industrial park.
■ Economic Development loan fund has $93,050 in cash available along with
$25,000 on deposit with MCCF.
■ Downtown loan fund has $424,158 in cash available with mortgages totaling
$655,089.
■ $20,181 in loan repayments has been received thus far this year.
■ MIF loan fund has $15,600 in cash available with a note outstanding of $186,466.
M /S /P: Vaillancourt, McGraw to approve the financial report as presented. Passed
unanimously.
V. Director's Report
BR & E Visits
A. Cenex Project
None this month.
- Phase II environmental and the "Limited Site
Investigation" are essentially done.
- Based on the findings, Braun Intertec is going to ask the MPCA to close the
site, as there is no significant additional petroleum contamination.
- About 330 yards of material will be to be removed to address the agricultural
chemical contamination — not too bad.
- Cenex will be sending a crew to do a final clean -up of the site shortly, and we
will have an asbestos inspection done in the near future as well.
- Aiming to have structures on the 3 d avenue site demolished by the end of
May.
B. Customer Elation Call Center
- Project is on schedule, should be in operation by the end of May with 25
employees on day one.
- Paperwork has been submitted to obtain the first part of the MIF loan and
that should be coming in today. We will have the entire $500,000 MIF loan
disbursed by mid - summer and repayment will commence on August 1St
C. Business Incubator
- Currently working to integrate the Ridgewater College members of the
project team.
D. Business Recruitment
• RKadia / Haugen Furniture
• Recon Robotics
• Company "X"
- The owner of RKadia indicated that he is not proceeding with the acquisition /
merger with Haugen Furniture at this time.
- We had a good phone visit with Recon Robotics, they could potentially be a
tenant for the Business Incubator. The company is still working on its due
diligence, evaluating other communities, etc.
- We have not heard anything lately from Company "X," although we are still
tentatively scheduled for a visit by company executives on Saturday, April
12th.
E. County EDA
- Staff is currently in the process of meeting individually with county board
members. The visit with Bev Wangrin went extremely well and we believe
she is in support of the concept.
- Dan Ehrke in Glencoe is meeting with Kermit Terlinden.
- We will be meeting with Sheldon Nies in the days ahead.
- The next meeting of McLeod For Tomorrow will have economic development
as one of its areas of focus.
VI. Proposed Revisions to Sign & Awning Grant Rules
After a brief discussion a motion was made to amend the language of the EDA's Sign
& Awning Grant Program, specifically the Contractor / Permits paragraph, as
follows:
Contractor / Permits: A minimum of eae -bid two bids per project must be obtained
from contractors, the lower of which will be reimbursed, unless the work is done by
the grant applicant. All required permits must be obtained.
(Note: Deleted language is shown with a strikethro g ; and new language is denoted by underlining.)
M /S /P: Gordon, Vaillancourt to adopt the amended language for the EDA's Sign &
Awning Grant Program. Passed unanimously.
VII. Proposed Company "X" Assistance
Staff noted that DEED is making their incentive contribution for Company "X" a
forgivable $500,000 loan made directly to the company. If the company meets its job
creation goals the entire amount would be forgiven.
Originally it was our understanding that the assistance would be in the form of a
$500,000 grant to the city, which in turn would loan it to the company. As the
company repaid the loan, the funds we become a permanent addition to the EDA's
revolving loan fund.
As part of the overall incentive package, 10 acres of land is to be provided to the
company free of charge, the premise being that for an investment of about $56,000
(the original cost of the land) the city would get a new company, significant new job
creation, potentially a $500,000 infrastructure grant and a $500,000 MIF grant which
would ultimately become a permanent addition to the revolving loan fund. Now this
last benefit will go directly to the company.
The Board discussed the issue and concluded that the potential benefits of the
project still far outweighed the projected costs.
VIII. 2007 Annual Report
Miles Seppelt briefly summarized the 2007 EDA Annual Report. Highlights included
■ Summary results for the last five years were included in the 2007 report.
■ 17 BR &E visits to manufacturers were made in 2007, with 46 companies
being visited over the last five years.
■ Successful grant writing has increased the value of the EDA's economic
development revolving loan fund from $194,840 in 2005 to $908,866 in 2007.
■ Warrior Mfg. has begun operations and Customer Elation has been recruited
to the community.
■ A total of $845,000 in grants has been brought in over the last three years.
■ 20 Sign & Awning Grants were awarded totaling $32,117.88
■ 6 Storefront Revitalization Matching Grants were awarded totaling
$25,398.97
■ Total EDA equity has risen to $2,959,735
■ The final report will be posted to the internet shortly.
IX. Grant & Loan Applications
Sign & Awning Grant Program
Hope Center — Laurie Gelschus
218 Main Street S
$1,000
M /S /P: McGraw, Gordon to approve up to $1,000 for a new sign for the Hope Center.
Passed unanimously. Vaillancourt abstained.
X. Other Business
Miles Seppelt reported that he attended the Worthington Bio- Science Conference
XI. Chamber Update
Dairy Day has been scheduled for the first week in June.
XII. Set Next Meeting — April 251h
Marc Vaillancourt indicated that he would not be able to attend April's meeting due to
a scheduling conflict.
XIII. Adjourn
With no further business to attend to, the meeting adjourned at 7:53 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Miles R. Seppelt
EDA Director