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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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DRAFT Economic Development Committee Minutes October 13, 2010
The DeKalb County Economic Development Committee met on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 @ 5:30p.m., in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East. Chairman Eileen Dubin called the meeting to order. Members present were Sally DeFauw, Julia Fauci, Jeff Metzger, Sr., Riley Oncken, Mark Todd and Pat Vary. Those also present were Paul Borek, Ruth Anne Tobias, Gary Hanson and Margaret Whitwell.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Moved by Ms. Fauci, seconded by Ms. DeFauw, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from September, 2010.
Ms. Vary asked that in the minutes under the Broadband discussion in first paragraph on page two, please include their titles.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA Moved by Mr. Todd, seconded by Mr. Oncken, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.
CHAIR'S COMMENTS Chairman Dubin updated the committee about a recent meeting with. Andre Ashmore and Joe McKeown from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and others involved with the grant to look into ways we could meet some of the suggestions coming from the study. Attending the meeting was Paul Borek, Executive Director of DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation and Mr. Glenn Lee of Wendler Engineering,and Eileen Dubin, Chair of the Economic Development Committee. Jenny Tomkins was out of the country and Robert Gleeson out of town. Mr. Ashmore suggested that he needed a page or so of some of the ideas discussed at the meeting to bring more business into the county.
Following this meeting she and Jenny Tomkins met with Karen Schmidt, (title) and Sarah Pohl, head of the Career Office at Kishwaukee College to explore what role Kishwaukee College could play in training a new labor force to replace an aging one. We were told over the last several years the CAD/COM courses were losing enrollment. However, more recently, as enrollment is growing, is are two full courses and only one faculty member to handle the courses. At the same time, local businesses are in need of having someone from the college come in to train some of their staff on newer machines and technology. Both Karen Schmidt and Sarah Pohl were working on a proposal to ask the IDCEO to help add staffing over a two year period to meet this demand. At the time of this meeting the proposal was being worked on. This proposal was sent to Mr. Ashmore.
A second proposal from Mr. Glenn Lee, who is with Wendler Engineering was being worked on and would be forwarded when completed. This proposal was asking for subsidizing rent to possible new businesses that would move into Wendler Engineering’s to share facilities such as fiber optics, fax machines, etc. and also start incubator businesses. This has since been forwarded to Mr. Ashmore.
Mr. Borek and his task force were looking into working on a proposal to develop a national manufacturing region. This is still in progress.
The Chair indicated she was hopeful that some of these proposals would be funded.
FY2011 BUDGET DISCUSSION Mr. Gary Hanson, DeKalb County Deputy County Administrator, said that there were two appeals that were before the committee tonight.
The first appeal is item #28a: Amend funding for the Economic Development Corporation, which was $45,000 in 2010 and recommended to be $42,700 in 2011 to (a) $35,000, or (b) $38,430 or (c) $45,000.
Mr. Hanson said that there are three appeals filed on item #28a.
Mr. Todd said that he met with Mr. Borek this afternoon and Mr. Borek told him facts that he was not aware of because of the current economic climate, when he filed this appeal. He said that they have had a rough time trying to fundraise and he feels that it would be unfair to ask them to go deeper than the 5% that was offered by the administration.
Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Todd, and it was carried unanimously to deny these 3 appeals and to send this recommendation to the Finance Committee.
Mr. Hanson said that the second appeal, item #34, was not clear. Requests clarification on program funding for the Broadband Grant.
Mr. Hanson asked the writer of the appeal to clarify his appeal and he never heard from him. Mr. Hanson said that he would have hoped that the person would have been able to read the committee minutes regarding the Broadband Grant now.
Moved by Mr. Todd, seconded by Mr. Metzger, Sr., and it was carried unanimously to have the person who filed the appeal refer to last month’s minutes starting on page 3 .
SMALL BUSINESS PORTAL PRESENTATION – JULIAN MAGDALENO, ADMINISTRATIVE INTERN
Mr. Magdaleno explained to the committee how he began the small business portal initiative project. He tried to design the portal to help entrepreneurs and existing small businesses find all the information that they will need to start up a new business or help an existing business with questions that they may need answered in one location. This site is also linked to the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation so that the County does not duplicate the work that they have already done for small business information. This site will enhance what the EDC already has and more. Mr. Magdaleno then went through the site in a brief presentation for the committee.
The committee thanked Julian for a job well done on the project and made some suggestions on what he could add to it. He said that the site will be up and running in the next couple of weeks.
GO GREEN INITIATIVE – MS. MARY SUPPLE Ms. Supple, DeKalb County Coordinator in the County Board Office, presented her cost savings report to the committee. This report was compiled to enlighten the taxpayers as to what their county is doing to save them money in efficiencies and cost cutting savings. She said that of the 14 departments that responded to her request – they have saved taxpayers approximately $149,000.00 in energy saving measures and volunteer services in the last year and a half. One of the departments highlighted in this report is the Forest Preserve Department, who alone has brought in revenues and donations totaling over $4 million and saved the County and taxpayers $50,000 in volunteer services. DeKalb County is aggressively looking for ways to cut energy costs, through its Facilities Management Office who maintains its buildings on various campuses. She explained that one way the County looked for innovative ways to cut energy costs was to construct our newer building which opened in 2008, the Community Outreach Building, which has geo-thermal energy. The building will utilize many energy efficient ideas, but one of the most unique will be the use of geo-thermal energy to heat and cool the building. It is believed that this will be the first major public building in DeKalb County to utilize this form of energy. The County Board approved an appropriation of $150,000 to go to a geo-thermal system over more traditional heating and cooling systems. The payback period is expected to be 7 to 10 years for a building with a useful life in excess of 40 years. Ms. Supple said that it is her hope that this report gives the public some insight to what their County has been doing to Go Green and cut costs. This report will be found on the County’s website in a week and that we will be adding to this list as the year goes on and as new projects emerge. The committee thanked Ms. Supple for her very good report.
Ms. Vary informed the committee that the Small Business Expo will take place on Monday, November 29, 2010 from 6-9:00p.m. in the Legislative Center’s Gathertorium and the lobby of that building. We will be holding 10-15 minutes presentations from some “green” companies for those people interested in creating new small businesses in this field. Those presentations will be held in the Liberty Room and will begin around 7:00p.m. We have various banks coming, Kishwaukee College, Score, Small Business Association through Waubonsee College to name a few. Ms. Fauci will be on hand to help create Logos again and Riley Oncken will help with legal questions.
Mr. Borek, Executive Director of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, briefly updated the committee on things happening around the county regarding development. He stated that in the Park 88 development the 3M project has half of their panel constructed already. SK Professions Tools recently broke ground for their new building. This is the 3rd tool company for Ideal Industries out of Sycamore. It will be a 130,000 square foot building and it should be done by December. The Pappas Development Company has begun construction on 3 small strip centers and they have 3 clients ready to move in. The committee thanked Mr. Borek for his very informative report. County Board Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias complimented Mr. Borek and his staff on visiting various businesses to help retain them in our county over the past year.
The committee discussed the exempt employee evaluation for the Supervisor of Assessments. They complimented Ms. Whitwell on what a great job she has been doing especially during these very hard economic times.
Moved by Mr. Oncken, seconded by Mr. Metzger, Sr., and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Eileen Dubin, Chairman ed:mcs |
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