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DeKalb County, Illinois |
Minutes of the
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PRINTABLE DOCUMENT
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DRAFT
September 12, 2012 The DeKalb County Economic Development Committee met on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 @ 7:00p.m., in the Administrative Building’s Conference Room East. Chairman Pat Vary called the meeting to order. Members present were Julia Fauci, Riley Oncken and Jeff Whelan. Mr. Brown and Mr. Metzger, Sr., were absent. Others present were Deb Armstrong, Jenny Johnson, Paul Borek, Robin Brunschon, Sarah Lief and Karen Cribben.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
DEKALB COUNTY CONVENTION & VISITOR’S BUREAU UPDATE – MS. DEB ARMSTRONG Ms. Armstrong further stated that the revenue from tourism in 2011 was over $7 million more than last year and was up 9.7%. The hotel sales tax revenue is the highest that it has been since 2006 as well. By helping to land the IHSA State Football Championships in DeKalb County, which is one of the most prestigious events that the IHSA holds the rights to, it will bring approximately 32,000 visitors to DeKalb County every other year starting in November 2013. Because of these accomplishments, Ms. Armstrong asked for an annual letter of support and resolution recognizing the DeKalb County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau as the marketing and promotion organization for DeKalb County tourism and for $15,000 partnership in unrestricted funding to help meet the local match. Ms. Armstrong thanked the committee for their continued support. Mr. Oncken said that the budget recommendation was for $10,000 in funding but that he would be willing to write an appeal for the $15,000 in support funding for the Visitor’s Bureau and he would include the whole committee in the appeal if that is their wishes. It was the consensus of the committee present that they wanted to be included in the appeal. Mr. Oncken said that he is very pleased with the work that the Bureau has done.
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GROUP STATUS UPDATE – MS. JENNY JOHNSON Ms. Johnson said that she will be filing the 501c3 paperwork by the end of the month. The title that they have selected for the group is The DeKalb Area Arts Council, which is a working title so far. They have discussed their goals and mission statement and have come up with the wording like education, support, development, and awareness. A very large part of what an arts council does is provide funding to artists and to arts organizations in order to cultivate art and arts education. They are looking at membership forms for the basis of the funding body. The one arts council that they really like as a model is the Rockford Arts Council. It is a great, active arts council, she said. They took a basic look at the Rockford model and scaled it back a little bit for DeKalb, Ms. Johnson said. Some of the membership funding that Rockford has is: $100.00 per organization, $25.00 for an individual, and $40.00 for a family membership. Ms. Johnson further explained that a great place to begin an arts council is to develop a website. It will include space sharing information, resource sharing information, and provide a community for various arts organizations and businesses. Once they start laying the foundation they will be able to begin the fundraising event and meet the community. They should be holding another meeting of this group in a couple of weeks, said Ms. Johnson. Chairman Vary said that it sounds like the council is further along than what we thought and thanked her and Alec Norad for their efforts.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION UPDATE - MR. PAUL BOREK Mr. Borek said that the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation will be holding its 25th Anniversary meeting on October 16, 2012 from 5:00p.m. to 9:00p.m. at the Northern Illinois University’s Duke Ellington Ballroom in the Holmes Student Center in DeKalb. They will be presenting an overview of the Corporation’s last 25 years and the State of the County address. He said that the manufacturing and industrial development have been leading the recovery in DeKalb County. Construction of a new $1 million 33,000 square foot building for Right Pointe is underway in DeKalb. The project will double the size of this manufacturer of products for the concrete and asphalt industry. He further stated that Right Pointe development is the sixth industrial facility constructed in DeKalb County during the last two years. New buildings for 3M and H.A. Phillips in DeKalb, SK Hand Tool and Fullco in Sycamore, and Precision Industries in Somonauk have also been completed during this period. Ryerson has leased the 1085 Peace Road building in DeKalb for their newest steel service center. Production Cutting Systems recently opened a tool and die shop in the Vision Pickling building in Waterman.
REQUEST FROM SUPERVISOR OF ASSESsMENTS – MS. ROBIN BRUNSCHON She said that last year when she started in her position as Supervisor of Assessments she agreed to reduce half of a position. After working in this position for over a year she realizes that the cut as too excessive. She has found that reports that should have been part of the office procedures were never done or completed. The Bulletin 810 in the farm home site portion was never completed the way it should have been, that is, before she started with the County. Ms. Bruschon said that she needs 9 hours a week, for 52 weeks, or approximately $6,500.00. She said that Mr. Hanson said that it would equal $7,300.00. The committee asked Ms. Brunschon to email Mary Supple with the information that they are asking for and then Mary could forward to the committee so that they could write the appeal. The consensus of the committee was for an appeal to be written by the entire committee. They also encouraged Ms. Brunschon to write an appeal on her own too. Before adjourning Chairman Vary said that she has invited Ms. Carrie Zethmayer from the Foreign Trade Zone at Rockford Airport to come to our meeting in October.
ADJOURNMENT Respectfully submitted, PV:mcs
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