10-01-2008 EDAMEDA Board of Directors
Meeting Minutes
12:00 PM Wednesday, October 1, 2008
(September Meeting)
Members present in bold print:
Members
Tim Ulrich Diane Gordon Steve Jansick
Casey Stotts Jim Haugen Mike McGraw
Staff
Miles Seppelt, EDA Director
Mike Solinger, EDA Assistant
I. Call to Order
Tim Ulrich called the meeting to order at 12:01 PM.
II. Approve Agenda
No action.
III. Review Meetinhg Minutes
A. August 26t Board of Directors
Marc Vaillancourt
M /S /P: McGraw, Haugen to approve the August 26th EDA Board minutes as written.
Passed unanimously.
B. September 17th Special EDA Board Meeting
M /S /P: Gordon, Vaillancourt to approve the September 17th Special meeting minutes as
written. Passed unanimously.
C. August 20th Finance Team
M /S /P: Jansick, Vaillancourt to approve the Finance Team minutes of August 20th
meeting as written. Passed unanimously.
IV. Review August Financial Statements — Miles Seppelt, EDA Director
• Mr. Seppelt reviewed the EDA financial statements for the Board:
• As of August 31St, the EDA had $63,342 in cash available for operations.
• Rental income of $500 was received from the Wetherell Property.
• The Professional Services Line shows $648 was spent in August for assessments to the
industrial park.
• The Economic Development Loan Fund currently has $100,520 in cash available. Loans
to Warrior Mfg. and Ashwill Industries are performing as required.
• The Downtown Revolving Loan Fund currently has $283,621 in cash available and holds
mortgages totaling $790,467.
• Total loan repayments and distributions to date are $70,972 and $176,404 respectively.
To date, grant payments total $24,415.
• The MIF Loan Fund has cash available of $31,200. Loan repayment interest in this fund
is at $3,052 as if August 31.
M /S /P: Vaillancourt, Haugen to approve the EDA Financial Report as presented. Passed
unanimously.
V. Director's Report
A. Cenex Project
• Soil tests have been conducted and results yielded a little more excavation.
• The next step will be to put in monitoring wells on the property to further track site
pollution.
B. Customer Elation Call Center
• To date, Customer Elation has 20 employees and is BR & E Visits
planning to hire 15 more over the next month and
hope to have 50 by year end.
• The MIF Loan for Customer Elation is currently 98%
paid out.
C. County EDA
• We are in the process of pulling together an "Exploration team" from around the
county that will formally evaluate the feasibility, proposed activities, funding
mechanisms, etc. for a county EDA.
• Hopefully the team can have its first meeting within a month and finish its work within
90 days after that.
D. Business Incubator
• Ridgewater College is busy refurbishing the "Ridgewater East" building in the
industrial park and hope to have it open this fall.
• To this point it seems that Ridgewater College does not have a strong interest in
putting together any entrepreneurial effort beyond the building itself, so Duane
Hoversten, Anthony Hanson, Bill Corby and EDA staff have been working on that
aspect of the incubator initiative.
E. Company "X" Update
■ The company recently stated their expansion plans are in a holding pattern. There is
some uncertainty about what stage of planning they are in.
VI. Industrial Park Acquisition / Planning
Staff updated the board on the status of acquiring the Hackbarth land for future industrial park
space:
• A few minor legal terms and conditions are being worked through to secure the fine
points of the acquisition including: the land is 68 acres not 70 and who is to receive the
money upon purchase.
• Mr. Hackbarth has agreed that the lease Mr. Christianson has to farm the land will be
transferred to the city upon purchase.
• The City is hoping to complete the purchase by October 14. The City will then rezone the
land, complete an engineering study, and have surveyed.
• Infrastructure will likely be a project in the spring.
VII. Grant & Loan Applications
NONE
VIII. Other Business
■ Jay Freedman asked Mr. Seppelt if he could make a pitch to the Board about acquiring a
small piece of EDA property — the Board decided this subject is not relevant at this time.
IX. Chamber Update
Bill Corby updated the Board on the current activities of the Chamber of Commerce
X. Set Next Meeting — October 29th
XI. Adjourn
With no further business to attend to, the meeting adjourned at 12:38 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Mike Solinger
EDA Assistant