government

IEDC Economic Development Seminar

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I attended a seminar put on by IEDC (Indiana Economic Development Corporation) in Indianapolis last week.  I was fortunate that it was in the morning before an ABC State Board meeting in the afternoon, allowing me to combine the trip to Indy.  It still made a ridiculously long day since I had to hit the road before 6:00 to be at the seminar at 9:00, driving between the two in lieu of eating lunch and then leaving the ABC meeting I didn’t get home until about 7:30. 

I attended as Chairman of MCEDC (Marshall County Economic Development Corporation) along with MCEDC staff, Jennifer Laurent and Derek Spier.  I was pleased that Grant Munroe, Ralph Winters and and Rick Tompos attended on behalf of the Culver Redevelopment Commission and that Mayor Mark Senter and City Attorney Sean Surrisi attended on behalf of the City of Plymouth.  It was unfortunate that there weren’t others from Marshall County able to attend.

The program centered around creative ways communities and economic development corporations were encouraging growth through the use of TIF Districts, shell buildings and virtual computer presentations.   Several different EDC’s presented on their use of these tools to attract development.

Both Culver and Plymouth have TIF Districts in Marshall County and both have used them successfully.  Plymouth has been more creative than Culver, but nowhere near as creative as some of the presentations that were made last week!  In a nutshell, money taken in by the TIF Districts must be spent on capital projects to benefit the TIF District, which allows quite a bit of leeway in interpretation.  One interesting use involved the coordination of a single county wide TIF District coordinating two City Redevelopment Commissions in conjunction with a County Redevelopment Commission.  Can you imagine if Marshall County communities could foster that kind of cooperation!?!  I think it generated quite a few new ideas in the attendees.

The use of shell buildings was discussed.  Plymouth had been considering contracting for a shell building on  PIDCO property on the northwest side of the City.  I’m sure hearing the success of other communities with these ventures helped spur the signing of a letter of intent with Garmong Construction this past Tuesday night.  (WTCA story here.)  This will result in a new, 45,000 sf (expandable to 135,000 sf) tilt-up concrete building being constructed west of Pioneer Seed on Commerce Drive.  In our just-in-time delivery society, it’s common that we’re passed over by site selectors when we don’t have a building that fits their needs ready to go.  The anecdotal evidence presented suggested that having the building there got prospects to the community.  Even when the building didn’t fit their exact requirements, it often got them there to consider other available sites.

During MCEDC’s discussions with Ady-Voltedge, our marketing consultant, we often heard the benefits of virtual site build-outs.  It was presented that by showing what a building looked like on the site, a prospect would find it easier to make the jump to visualizing THEIR building on the site.  An example of this was shown where an existing, dilapidated, empty building was shown with a virtual facelift, new landscaping and cars in the parking lot.  They were able to sell the client on this vision before ever taking them to see the existing building.

I hope the other attendees came back with the new enthusiasm I gained from these presentations.  Indiana should be poised for a leap forward in economic prosperity.  Indiana is a business tax friendly, Right-To-Work State at the crossroads of America.  Marshall County needs to take every opportunity to be part of the leap in renewed growth Indiana is about to experience.

Culver Redevelopment Commission

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The Culver Redevelopment Commission (CRC) met for their first 2012 meeting on Wednesday, March 21st.  There are two returning members, Grant Munroe and Jerry Ney.  There are three new members, Brandon Cooper, Rick Tompos and Ralph Winters.  (Cooper was absent.)  They reorganized with Munroe as Chair, Winters as Vice-Chair and Tompos as Secretary.

Members brought two issues before the commission as projects to consider for the year:

  1. Munroe suggested that the group continue their consideration of facade improvement grants as were discussed extensively last year.  I suggested that they approach Trent Bennett regarding participating in a Task Force or Sub Committee in order to complete this project since he was so heavily involved in it the previous year.  They thought that was appropriate and planned to contact him.  They are going to consider this at their next meeting when they have a better handle on financing.
  2. Winters suggested that the group consider funding or helping to fund a sidewalk project which would extend the sidewalk along the west side of Lake Shore Drive from where it stops up to the intersection with S.R. 10 and then west along S.R. 1o to the Family Dollar store.  He  suggested this due to the number of Culver Academies students that walk this route to the Park ‘N Shop and to the Family Dollar.  Obstacles concerning this were discussed including that part of the area was not in the TIF District and part of the area would be on INDOT Right-of-Way.  They are going to consider this at their next meeting as well.

I presented a proposal that they consider participating in funding of a new Culver Comprehensive Plan.  (See 20/20 Vision for Culver)  They agreed that this would be a good project as it did impact the TIF District, but they felt it would be appropriate to partially fund it rather than be the sole source of funding.  I explained that this suggestion originated with Kathy Clark, a former chair of the CRC.  I also explained that I have vetted the idea with Jennifer Laurent, Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) Executive Director, and she had indicated that it was a common use of Redevelopment funds and outlined some steps for them to take.   They are going to consider this at their next meeting as well.

They plan to have updated financials for their next meeting so that the new members can familarize themselves with the funding and available funds.  They’re behind this year since this was their first meeting, but it sounds like they intend to hit the ground running.  Their next meeting will be April 18th at 5:30pm.  They are changing their meeting dates to the 3rd Wednesday of each month at the new 5:30pm time.

Super Tuesday Thoughts

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All of the news organizations are lathered up about today being “Super Tuesday“.  It’s all a little frustrating as I generally feel like the decisions on the national candidates have been made long before Indiana’s Primaries roll around.  Hoosiers have the opportunity to support candidates financially before the primaries, but in the end it’s the votes that count.  I guess we’ll have to see if the new method of awarding delegates makes Hoosier votes relative this year.

Along with the changes with the national delegate counts, we’ve seen some local changes as well.  For those of you that haven’t seen the new district maps, Marshall County occupies the majority of Indiana House District 17.  Fulton County to the south shares a portion of District 17 as well.  (See the map to the right)  We will no longer be “represented” by Nancy Dembowski as she will be in District 20.  The latest information I’ve received is that she didn’t file to run so she is retiring after this year.  That will leave Tom Dermody to run unopposed in the general election.  Mr. Dermody is the current Representative for District 20.

There are currently two Republicans, Francis Ellert and Tim Harman,  running in the primary to represent District 17.  As of this time I haven’t had the chance to learn too much about Mr. Harman, but I did support Francis Ellert in 2010 (previous blog post here) and feel he would do a good job representing the interests of our district.

On the Senate side, Marshall County is split along what appears to be township lines.  (See the map to the right)  West Township along with Union, Green, Walnut and Tippecanoe Townships along the south side of the County fall into Senate District 18.  District 18 covers all or part of 5 additional counties south of Marshall County.  The remainder of Marshall County is part of Senate District 9 which includes portions of Elkhart, Kosciusko and St. Joseph Counties to the north and east.

State Senator Randy Head currently represents District 18 which includes Culver.  Senator Head came to Culver to speak last Saturday, but unfortunately I was unable to attend.  Hopefully Culver generated a good turnout for him!  Senator Head is running unopposed in the primary and general elections.

State Senator Ryan Mishler currently represents District 9 which includes Plymouth and the remainder of Marshall County to the north and east.  Senator Mishler is running unopposed in the primary and general elections.

I would encourage you to take the time to learn about Francis Ellert and Tim Harman.  We often mistakenly think that our State representatives aren’t important, but they are key to decisions that affect our daily lives and how competitive our State is nationally and worldwide.  I’ll be cursing their decision a few years back to go to Daylight Savings Time when the alarm goes off next Monday just as I cheered their decision to implement Right to Work in the current session.

Culver Garden Court – Permission to Occupy!

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This past Tuesday we had our PTO (Permission To Occupy) meeting with HUD for the Culver Garden Court.  This released the building to the property management company (Bradley Residential Management, formerly Real Estate Management) and they started to move furniture in that day.   There were a few minor cleaning issues and some general touch-up items to be completed and they are underway.  We will be moving the equipment and trailers off the site this week.  The first residents will be moving in on Monday of next week!  We’ve had to kick one future resident out multiple times over the past month as he’s been impatient to move in!  Ha!

Due to the timing for completion of this building, there were a few items escrowed including the landscaping.  This is scheduled for installation later this Spring.  If our Spring comes in as mild as the Winter has been, we should be able to get an early start on it.  Since it includes seeding, we don’t want to push this too early though.

We think this has been a successful project and we have gone over and above since it’s in our home town.  There will be an announcement for an Open House and Ribbon Cutting coming out soon which we’ll include as a post here.  We look forward to seeing you there!

We’ve included a few additional pictures after the jump.

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