Economic Development Corporation

April 2, 2003

Minutes

 

 

Members Present:

 

Allyn Wright, Robert Atkinson, Peter Garwood, Sherry Comben, and Laura Stanek

Members Absent:

 

Richard Diebold, Tom Lane, Jerome Simowski and Bob Peterson

Others Present:

 

Patti Cantrell, Tom Johnson, Marshall Wright, Howard Yamaguchi

 

1.         Call to Order

 

Pete Garwood called the meeting to order at 3:07 p.m.

2.         Minutes of the March 5, 2003, Meeting

 

Motion by Pete Garwood, supported by Sherry Comben, to approve the minutes of the March 5, 2003, EDC meeting.  Passed - unanimous

3.         NLEA Update

 

Tom Johnson gave the NLEA update, discussing the ongoing work of NLEA with the Village of Bellaire (downtown parking plan, DDA, etc.) and the upcoming regional tech center.

4.         Entrepreneurial Agriculture

 

Patti Cantrell, Economic Analyst at the Michigan Land Use Institute in Beulah, MI, gave a talk on entrepreneurial agriculture and its place in regional economic development.  Discussion that followed included how the County EDC and the Board of Commissioners could contribute to making entrepreneurial agriculture a major component of Antrim County’s development plan.

5.         Economic Development Tools

 

Tom Johnson followed Ms. Cantrell’s talk with a talk (and handouts) on tools of economic development available to communities:  financing, block grants, BRA’s, DDA’s, land transfers and industrial property tax abatements.  Tom will follow up next month with a talk on business development tools.

6.         EDC and the Master Plan

 

Marshall Wright of the County Planning Commission distributed a possible outline for the economic development volume of the county master plan that the EDC will be developing.  He requested the EDC to examine this and return next month with their comments.

7.         Communications

 

Pete Garwood presented the MEDC seminar announcement (Traverse City, May 2, 10 am – 2 pm).  All EDC members are encouraged to attend.  Fees will be paid by the EDC training budget.

Meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.