1995-11-08-Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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204 Mr. Vest said he would like to discuss the Board of the Texas Workforce Commission. He said that Judge Loughmiller was considered to be the C.E.O. of Lamar County. He said all of the agencies, the Texas Employment Commission, the J.T.P.A. Program, all training funds and approximately twenty-nine State and Federal agencies have been merged into one under Senate Bill 642 and House Bill 1865. He said our nine county region is considering a plan to create a local workforce development board. He said he had several questions in connection with this board. He said if we go with this program as it is proposed by the Ark-Tex Council of Governments that it is very slanted towards Texarkana and Bowie County. He said this is a very important issue and these local workforce development boards determine whether the County can get the workforce funds. Mr. Vest said another very important item he needed to discuss with the Board at this meeting dealt with the BITCO operation. He said the Board had approved participation with BITCO to · build the building on this site and serve as their landlord for three years. He said the board has agreed to a participating loan with the Northeast Texas Economic Development District and asked the bank consortium to get S.B.A. 7(a) approval. Mr. Vest said that the S.B.A. 7(a) portion has not been denied, but we have not been able to obtain approval. He said Ridley Briggs is heading up the lending agency making the request, and he told Mr. Vest that approval may be six weeks away. Mr. Vest said that if they wait another six weeks they have taken BITCO out of a year's worth of business. Mr. Vest said that in looking at alternative methods to fund the project, he would like to suggest that the Economic Development Corporation step in and become the guarantor for that loan, much in the same way that the S.B.A. would have been the guarantor, so we can proceed with that project. Mr. Vest said that the Board would be guaranteeing $270,000.00. He said we will not actually be putting up the money, and we will not be expending the money unless the business fails. He said it was a guarantee situation. President Cecil said that in conversation with Mr. Briggs on this date, he said S.B.A. has not turned this down at this time, but there is going to be at best a substantial amount of remaining time involved in getting the approval through S.B.A. if it's done at all. Mr. Cecil said, with that in mind, a suggestion was made that perhaps the P.E.D.C. could step in, in the place of S.B.A. and simply guarantee the bank loan as S.B.A. would have done. He said if this Board felt that it was appropriate for us to step in with that guarantee, it would be the same as the S.B.A. guarantee of 75% of $360,000 which is $270,000.00. He said that is assuming that the banks would be agreeable to doing that with the P.E.D.C. guarantee. He said this has not been formally presented to the banks at this time. Mr. Cecil said the building funds are not at risk since the building could be used for other purposes. He said the other agreement was to front $62,500.00 to the Northeast Texas Economic Development Corporation as our part of that loan which was a second lien loan on the equipment. He said if the loan of $62,500.00 was repaid, then this amount would flow on through as credit that we have for additional loans in this area. Mr. Cecil said in the guarantee situation, we would have first lien position which would be secured by the assets of the corporation. He said our lien would be first and the second lien behind ours would be the Northeast Texas Economic Development Corporation. Mr. Cecil asked for comments from the boardmembers. After discussion, it was the consensus of the boardmembers to see the project through. Boardmember Bray said he was in agreement, but felt that the building design needs to be something that can be worked into someone else's plans. President Cecil said that was a point well taken and the building should be a multi-purpose building.