Thursday, August 7, 2008
County Administrative Center – Room 3220
7:30 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Doyle, Steve O’Malley (arr @7:32), Barry Bertelsen, Steve Burgess, Vicki Burke, Joan Curran, Tara Johnson (arr @7:40), Audrey Kader (arr @7:38), Tom Rauk, David Lange (designee for William Shepherd), Mary Jo Werner, John Wettstein
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Don Brenengen, Gary Ingvalson, Dennis Manthei, William Shepherd
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STAFF & GUESTS PRESENT: Brian Fukuda, Charlie Handy, Greg Flogstad, Jennifer Kuderer, Diana Engel, Nancy Proctor, Cheryl Stephen
CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL
Steve Doyle, Board President, called the meeting to order at 7:31 a.m.
PUBLIC COMMENT
None requested.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MOTION by Burgess/Werner to approve minutes of July 10, 2008. Motion carried unanimously; excused: Brenengen, Ingvalson, Manthei, Shepherd; absent: O’Malley, Johnson, Kader.
APPROVE PAYMENT OF VOUCHERS
Charlie Handy reviewed the one voucher, noting it is for the annual (2008) maintenance agreement with CP Rail; staff recommends approval. MOTION by Burke/Werner to approve payment of $6,776.74 to CP Rail. Motion carried unanimously; excused: Brenengen, Ingvalson, Manthei, Shepherd; absent: Johnson, Kader.
COUNTY FARM MASTER PLAN
Charlie and Brian presented a large map for viewing; the consultants are still working on additional graphics and presentation. Hope to have the consultants (Schreiber Anderson) present the County Farm Master Plan at the September 8th County Board Policy Planning session. Chairman Doyle suggested the master plan also be presented to the West Salem Village Board and in addition, invite them to the Sept. County Board Policy Planning meeting. Staff feels there is good mix of housing, industrial, and mixed commercial which was reduced significantly based on previous discussions and noted concerns. Steve O’Malley also noted the retail area would most likely be developed last - possibly 15-20 years.
CONSIDERATION OF JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT SPONSORSHIP
Brian noted the County received a letter from Junior Achievement thanking the County for past support and requested future sponsorship of Junior Achievement Program(s). In January 2006, the Economic Development Fund gave them $500; no other records found prior to that. Junior Achievement Programs are for kids K-12 relating to free enterprise/business orientation. Brian noted some funds available in the Business Promotion account that could be used for such. Discussion on whether or not it qualifies as economic development project; some thought Business Promotion dollars should assist businesses; some thought Junior Achievement be considered as an educational tool for future businesses. MOTION by Burke/Kader to approve donation/payment of $250 to Junior Achievement and also indicate to them that future requests may be denied as the board is focusing more on economic development. Motion carried unanimously; excused: Brenengen, Ingvalson, Manthei, Shepherd.
LAKEVIEW PROJECT UPDATE
Charlie noted Badger (the contractor) has not completed all of the stormwater trench fill, but has completed the portion immediately adjacent to Amerhart’s building. With additional help and inspections, they have done a good job. Starting to see progress on the Amerhart building with the project moving along. Amerhart also awarded their portion of the rail project to Holubar and they plan to start on September 1.
AWARD CONTRACT FOR LAKEVIEW RAIL PROJECT
For the County portion of the rail project, three bids were received, with the lowest from Holubar in amount of $390,364. Other bidders were Volkmann at $417,594 and Railworks at $422,824. Foth as the engineer reviewed the bids; Foth and County staff recommends approval of the low bid from Holubar. MOTION by Curran/Kader to approve the bid from Holubar in amount of $390,364 for County portion of the rail project. Motion carried unanimously; excused: Brenengen, Ingvalson, Manthei, Shepherd.
REVOLVING LOAN FUNDS STATUS REPORT
Four handouts were distributed and reviewed:
· Revolving Loan Fund History from August 1992-July 2008. To date, the revolving fund program, which includes all 3 revolving loan types, has provided approximately $2.5 million in loans to 17 businesses in the County that have created or retained over 200 jobs and have leveraged over $15 million in other loans or equity investments.
· CDBG financial statement (1999-current) with an undesignated fund balance of $394,986.
· Dept. of Commerce/Economic Development Administration (EDA) financial statement (1995-current) with an undesignated fund balance of $67,529.
· County revolving loan financial statement (1998-current) with an unreserved fund balance of $11,261.
Greg Flogstad gave an update on current loan status, noting only one that is behind in payments, that being Airborne Datalink who was advised by their bank to stop making payments to subordinates; the business is still looking for investors; Steve O’Malley suggested getting an update from Altra for the next board meeting. Barry Bertelsen suggested instead of the County being a stand alone subordinate lender, to negotiate participation with the main bank – having same leverage as the banks. Steve Burgess noted for most situations like these, the borrowers are low on the equity side. Greg thought the federal EDA may require separate notes/loans. Charlie noted the reason why the County gets involved is because the loan requests are “weak.”
At this time, Greg noted the revolving loan fund for the Dept. of Commerce/EDA has an “Excess Retention” rule that essentially states no more then 25% of the funds base capital can remain in an account for a year. By 9/30/08, will reach that threshold, so should approve a loan commitment of 17,000 or more. If not done, then this amount is to be placed into a separate bank account and the interest earned goes to the U.S. Treasury. Discussion followed. Staff suggested they could contact current developers in the Lakeview Park that need to expand by a certain date that also relates to increasing their work force or same contact can be done for the other area business/industrial parks. Board members concurred.
APPROVE/ACCEPT CDBG-EAP GRANT RE: 2008 FLOOD ASSISTANCE
Charlie reviewed. MOTION by Johnson/Burke to approve/accept the CDBG-EAP grant in amount of $50,000 as part of the flood assistance for low to moderate homeowners in La Crosse County as administered by CouleeCap. Motion carried unanimously; excused: Brenengen, Ingvalson, Manthei, Shepherd
AGENCY REPORTS
La Crosse Area Builders Association – They are planning a luncheon meeting October 22nd from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. to present information relating to a study done for the National Association of Home Builders relating to the impact of housing in the La Crosse area; members of this board are invited. More detailed information will be announced at future meetings.
La Crosse Promise Update – County staff, including City and school district, continue to work on this project as well as discussing options with the La Crosse Community Foundation. The UpJohn Institute, as the approved consultant, will be here on August 18 and 19 to hold meetings with the various stakeholders. Werner suggested including the Chamber of Commerce.
Others
· Greg noted EDA was just awarded $100 million as part of long-term flood recovery to be used as infrastructure improvements/projects and economic development related. Suggestion to consider the Park Plaza project.
· Wisconsin Way Forum scheduled at the Omni Center on October 8th; more information on their website: www.wisconsinway.org.
· Economic Indicators scheduled at the Cleary Center on September 10th; members of this board are invited to attend and the cost is paid by the County.
NEXT MEETING
Thursday, September 4th at 7:30 a.m.
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION by Rauk/Werner to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried unanimously; excused: Brenengen, Ingvalson, Manthei, Shepherd. The meeting adjourned at 8:19 a.m.
Disclaimer: The above minutes may be approved, amended or corrected at the next committee meeting.
Cheryl Stephen, Recorder