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PEDC Board Meeting Minutes December 20, 2016 Page 3 of 4 Discuss and gain direction to implement employee benefits at PEDC. Mr. Paris opened the conversation by referring to the PEDC Employee Manual that shows the benefits package for full -time employees to include medical insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, and vision. In his research he talked to the City of Paris about participating in the City plan, but was told the PEDC could not because the City did not have good experiences with other entities being on the City Plan. He contacted the Texas Municipal League which sent us plans with different options on coverage. The Plan H85- 250 -30 -A is a high deductible plan that has low monthly costs. With the high deductible plan, some employers contribute to the employees HSA Plans to help with the deductibles. We would like to place Chris in a full -time position with benefits and we should be able to justify this cost with the extra amount we pay to the temp agency. Mr. Wilson asked about the Executive Director's contract and if it would affect how the benefits would work. Mr. Paris said that it would not affect any benefits. Mr. Manning asked if we would be able to stay within our budget and provide benefits for all employees. Mr. Paris reminded the Board that before he came aboard there was a wonderful benefits program offered by the PEDC and that we needed to get back into that thinking again. Mr. Paris asked for direction from the Board, whether they wanted him to continue to pursue this, and if they would like him to create a spreadsheet to show how to fit this into our budget. The Board was in agreement to have Mr. Paris come back with a spreadsheet that assesses whether the PEDC can afford the insurance benefits. Executive Director's Monthly Report. • We met with some of the experts from our local TxDot District. Working with Ken Higdon and the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce we are evaluating what is important to take with us Lamar County Days. What is important for the long term growth of Paris? The highlights are: Highway 82 "the Super 2s" have plans to be expanded to 4 -lanes but this is an unfunded plan. There is a $70 million dollar a year budget for District #1 which is the Paris District and Highway 82 is not on it. TxDot has a scoring system for highway plans to be moved up the list. Commissioner Austin out of the Tyler area would like to see Highway 271 become a 4 -lane highway. When you take Highway 271 from Paris into Oklahoma you have access to the Indian Turnpike to reach Interstate 40. The problem: the state of Texas doesn't like that the Turnpike is a toll road, but does like that there is access to Interstate 40. The discussion with TxDot also gave us the reasons why Highway 271 is being promoted. Transportation routes between Houston and Dallas are congested and finding other routes that bypass the traffic are being considered. The next question was whether Loop 286 would handle more traffic and it was decided that we would highlight the Loop at Lamar County Days. Hudson Old publishes the East Texas Journal and is the Titus County representative for the Northeast Texas RMA. Mr. Old is working to get resolutions signed regarding Highway 271 and Commissioner Austin will get those signed resolutions in front of the other Commissioners. • We are consistently sending out emails with Constant Contact. Attendee names are added after each event that we have participated in. One of the names we added from the Fab -Tech show received our email and has contacted us.