Minutes: Evansville Economic Development: July 2006

CITY OF EVANSVILLE
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE


MINUTES

Tuesday, July 18, 2006
6:00 p.m.




1. Roll call. The meeting was called to order by vice-chair Juergens at 6:07 p.m. Present: Gene Bass, John Decker, Fred Juergens, Dave Olsen, Tony Wyse. Absent: Roger Berg, Cheryl Dickert, James Otterstein. Also present: Wendy Soucie, Mayor Sandy Decker.

2. Approval of agenda. The agenda, as distributed, was approved without objection.

3. Approval of minutes of June 20 meeting. Juergens moved, seconded by Decker to approve the June 20 minutes as distributed. Approved by voice vote, with Dave Olsen abstaining.

5. Citizen appearances, other than on items listed below. None.

6. Update on proposed TID #6. City Planner Schwoecke, City Financial Consultant Wagner and Mayor Decker had a 90 minute meeting earlier on July 18 with Atty. Robert Fleishhacker, who represents D&D Development. An additional meeting, which will also include City Engineer Sauer, is planned for next week.

7. Update on potential biodiesel facility. Mayor Decker reported that North Prairie Production and Lanmark Services are in negotiations with respect to a potential biodiesel production facility, to be located within the loop of track at Landmark's rail facility between CTH "M" and Weary Road. Landmark also has an interest in constructing a soybean crush facility on the site. The parties are awaiting the release of a financial feasibility study by the Wiscosnsin Soybean Association prior to making a final site selection.

8. Update on Streetscape/Bicycle Trailways grant application. John Decker reported that State Rep. Brett Davis informed him that the Department of Transportation grant advisory committee had recommended that the Evansville grant application be funded in full. In the committee's ranking system, Evansville's application was rated 14th, and the top 25 applications were recommended for approval. The decision on the grant awards should be made by the Secretary of Transportation in August, and announced by the Governor in September.

9. Update on Rural Development grant application. Wendy Soucie of Sortis reported that Evansville's grant application was not successful. Only two grant applications from Wisconsin were forwarded by state officials to the USDA in Washington, and Evansville's was not among them.

10. Presentation by Sortis re: possible marketing program for TIF District(s). Wendy Soucie provided a written and oral report on Sortis's proposal to conduct a business marketing program for Evansville's Tax Increment District(s). The program would include identification of prospective new businesses, and a sophisticated marketing program, to include revision the the City's web site, a direct mail campaign, telephone follow-up and prodution of a marketing video/CD. Cost of the full program, not including purchase of mailing lists, would be approximately $53,000.00. Committee members asked a number of questions, but no action was taken on the proposal.

11. Proposed joint session in August with Chamber of Commerce and Evansville Community Partnership. John Decker reported he had met with Christia Hunt of ECP, Becky Heimerl of the Chamber and with one of the potential consultants to discuss arrangements for the proposed joint planning session. Agreement was reached that it is premature to engage a consultant, and that preparatory work can and should be done by the three entities before incurring the expense of consultant participation.

12. Discussion of committee organization, projects and budget. Brief discussion was had, due to the time constraint imposed by scheduled commencement of the monthly meeting of the Redevelopment Authority. Consensus was reached that this agenda item should have priority treatment at the committee's August meeting. Fred Juergens suggested that each committee member come prepared to discuss two potential committee projects.

13. Review of 1991 "First Impressions" survey of Evansville. Deferred.

14. Adjournment. Juergens moved, seconded by Bass, to adjourn. Approved by voice vote at 7:30 p.m.


Respectfully submitted,


John Decker, Secretary

Note: Meeting minutes are not official until approved at a subsequent meeting of the committee.