05/16/2017 MINUTES - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

PEDC Board Meeting Minutes May 16, 2017 Page 3 of 4 response. He stated that usually the interest is fading. Mr. Wilson said that the rail is suspended in the air due to the flooding. And pointed the issue out to Mr. Godwin. • Project Wind Cave came directly from the Governor's Office. Project DS came through Team Texas. • Lead Generation. The end of March was our first meeting with the Governor's Office. Representing Paris at the meeting were: Mr. Derrick Hughes, PEDC Board Member; Dr. Pam Anglin, President of Paris Junior College; Mr. Greg Wilson, President of Lamar Bank. Our presentation covered assets and resources in Paris, Texas. They did not realize we had a huge population of trailer manufacturers in the western part of the county. The Governor's Office has been talking to a trailer manufacturer from Italy. We have gathered information for them about our trailer manufacturers' employees. Our calculations show that approximately 70% of them are welders. • Three more phone calls were set up through ROI. Mr. Paris acknowledged that he has been very disappointed with ROI and the quality of the leads that we have received. Nothing has come about through ROI. • Mr. Paris met with commercial real estate developer, Earl Jones, from Midlothian area. The discussion gave new ideas for our build to suit site and our industrial park development. • The AUVSI XPONENTIAL Conference was in Dallas. ( AUVSI = Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) The market is growing rapidly in all types of unmanned vehicles. In the manufacturing part of the show there were about one hundred manufacturers that Mr. Paris contacted, this resulted in eight face to face meetings and two good contacts to stay in touch with. • We just had the Paris Air Show with all the planes flying in. This would be a great time to talk to the Dallas chapter of the AUVSI about an unmanned air show and obstacle course at our airport. Mr. Paris indicated that he would appreciate Mr. Higdon's thoughts on pulling this project together. • Mr. Paris met with Mr. Noel Paramanantham, Paris District Engineer for the TxDot, to check the progress on the Loop Study. Also, he asked what the contribution amount Paris would need as leverage to score higher on the priority list of road projects. Noel believes that there is $1.3 million already set aside and the Loop Study could be done without a public /private partnership. This looks very promising. Everyone noticed the standing water after the heavy rain. We asked that the water around the Loop when it rains also be studied. • Park Street has the chip seal on it. • Marketing has been in the form of email blasts to site selector consultants, commercial real estate brokers, and those we meet at the conferences. The rail logistics and PJC 60x3OTX program were both highlighted. The 60X30TX program