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12/14/1994 MINUTES 5 MINUTES OF THE PARIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION December 14, 1994 The Paris Economic Development Corporation met in a regular meeting on Thursday, December 14, 1994, at 4:00 P.M., in the City Hall North Annex, Fire Training Room, Paris, Texas. Chairman Philip Cecil called the meeting to order with the following board members present: Dick Amis, Curtis Fendley, Barney Bray, and Leon Williams. Also present were ex-officio board members, Deane Loughmiller, Ike Jewett (representing Gary Cunningham), Bobby Walters, Bill Vaughan, Gary Vest, Economic Development Director, Michael E. Malone, City Manager, and T.K. Haynes, City Attorney, as counselor. Mr. Cecil stated that the first item on the agenda was approval of the minutes from the previous meeting of the Paris Economic Development Corporation. He asked if there were any corrections or additions to the minutes of the previous meeting and there being none the minutes stood approved as received. Chairman Cecil noted that Mr. Anderson was not present at this meeting, but the financial report had been given to each of the boardmembers. Boardmember Amis made a motion which was seconded by Boardmember Bray, to approve the financial report as presented which carried unanimously. Boardmember Bray wanted to know if the Campbell Soup Street Project had been paid for, and Chairman Cecil said that City Engineer Earl Smith was present regarding the project. Chairman Cecil stated the next item on the agenda was consideration of and action on establishing a regular monthly meeting date and time. Chairman Cecil stated that City Attorney Haynes and City Manager Malone had advised there was a conflict with having the regularly scheduled meeting the last part of the month. City Attorney Haynes stated that the majority of City Councils in the State of Texas meet in the early part of the month, so most City-type organizational 66 meetings and training sessions are scheduled during the later part of the month. Mr. Haynes stated he felt the Board wanted to have their meetings close to the City Council meetings where reports could be given as to action taken on requests. Mr. Haynes advised the proposed time is the Wednesday after the second Monday of the month. After discussion, Chairman Cecil stated beginning at the January, 1995, meeting the Board's regular meeting time would be at 4:00 o'clock, p.m., on the Wednesday following the second Monday of the month. Resolution No. 94-003 that the monthly meetings of the Paris Economic Development Corporation be rescheduled to 4:00 o'clock, p.m. on the first Wednesday immediately following the Monday meetings of the City Council of the City of Paris, on the following dates: January 11, 1995, February 15, 1995, March 15, 1995, April 12, 1995, May 10, 1995, June 14, 1995, and July 12, 1995, was presented. A motion was made by Boardmember Dick Amis, seconded by Boardmember Curtis Fendley for approval of the resolution. The motion carried unanimously. RESOLUTION NO. 94-003 WHEREAS, the Paris Economic Development Corporation did heretofore, on August 25, 1994, set all regular meetings of the Paris Economic Development Corporation for 4:00 o'clock p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of each month; and, WHEREAS, it would be in the best interest of the Board of Directors and Ex-officio Members of the Paris Economic Development Corporation to have the monthly meetings rescheduled for 4:00 o'clock p.m. on the first Wednesday immediately following the Monday meetings of the City Council of the City of Paris; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE PARIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, that the monthly meetings of the Paris Economic Development Corporation be rescheduled for 4:00 o'clock p.m. on the following dates: January 11, 1995, February 15, 1995, March 15, 1995, April 12, 1995, May 10, 1995, June 14, 1995, and July 12, 1995. PASSED AND ADOPTED this 14th day of December, 1994. Philip R. Cecil, President ATTEST: Richard M. Amis, Secretary-Treasurer APPROVED AS TO FORM: T. K. Haynes, City Attorney 67 Chairman Cecil stated that he had asked City Engineer Earl Smith to attend this meeting to provide information on the Soup Street Project. City Engineer Smith stated the project is complete at this time with a total cost of $160,152.33. He said at the last regular City Council meeting the Final Change Order was presented to them which was for a deduct in the contract price of $3,123.85. Mr. Smith said the project cost ended up slightly under bid. Mr. Smith said he felt they now have a virtually maintenance free pavement for at least twenty years, and he believes the people at Campbell Soup are satisfied. Chairman Cecil called for questions regarding this project. City Attorney Haynes advised that the City's contribution of $20,000.00 was authorized to be transferred into the Paris Economic Development Corporation Fund by resolution that passed the Final Change Order. Chairman Cecil thanked Mr. Smith for his report. Chairman Cecil asked Mr. Vest to make his report. Mr. Vest stated he had asked City Manager Malone to show the video tape he had just received from the Northe~ast Texas Economic Developers Roundtable. Mr. Vest stated that this video promotes the northeast Texas area as the "Right Corner of Texas" which is right for people and right for business in every way. Mr. Malone advised there were twenty-three counties in Northeast Texas, and that Judge Loughmiller was on the Board. Mr. Vest said they supported the efforts of the Economic Developers Roundtable, and they have the opportunity to host the Northeast Texas Economic Developers Roundtable meeting January 18, at the Love Civic Center. Mr. Vest stated he would be getting more information out to the boardmembers regarding this meeting. Mr. Vest said in connection with the retention and expansion program they visited two industries which were well received. Mr. Vest advised they had several other visits planned and will continue to make the visits once a month. Mr. Vest advised they had made a trip to the Economic Development Department at Texas Utilities and visited with their key staff people. He advised that one of the items discussed was the possibility of a model building project. He said the model building seemed to be a major issue with the T.U. staff, and they were limited to the prospects they bring to Paris due to the unavailability of any industrial space in Paris. Chairman Cecil questioned the boardmembers as to the impressions they received from this meeting. Boardmember Fendley stated he agreed with what Mr. Vest said and stated the T.U. staff had indicated that ten or twelve prospects had passed Paris by because they required a 60,000 square foot shell building available for viewing. Mr. Fendley said he felt this is something the Board should look at, and let Mr. Vest and some members of the community gather information to see if it is feasible. Mr. Vaughan said they asked the T. U. staff if we had a finite number of dollars where would you allocate those funds, would you put the money into marketing;, and their suggestion was to put the money into the model building. Mr. Vaughan stated that they may not land an industry from that particular model building, but their theory is that it will attract others, and then you can put those others perhaps into a new building. Chairman Cecil asked if they had anything to say regarding the number of prospects that could have been directed to Paris that were not because of the lack having a model building to show them. It was the consensus of the boardmembers there were several prospects. Mr. Amis said he felt Paris would be unique to have the model building to bring prospects in to show. 68 Boardmember Fendley stated they were talking about a shell building, no floor, no utilities, just walls and a perimeter. Boardmember Amis said it seemed like in our planning that we could satisfy two or three of our thoughts over the last few months, 1) the idea of a model building, 2) the northwest industrial property needs cleaning up. He said they might combine those two, and there is the issue of the land ownership and the Paris Industrial Foundation. He said there might be a way to work with all of that and get a good project going. Mr. Amis said it would take months to plan and do it right, but he felt the discussion needs to start. Chairman Cecil noted the reason he was not enthusiastic about the model building at first because the board could very easily tie up several hundred thousand dollars for an indefinite period of time. Mr. Cecil said he had a high regard for Texas Utilities experience in these matters, and he felt that this could be a positive thing for the board to do. He also said he felt that the board could utilize some of the land available through the Foundation mentioned by Mr. Amis. After discussion, Chairman Cecil stated he would like for Mr. Vest to develop some information on model buildings of this sort from communities that have built model buildings as to how they have approached the problem, what suggestions they might have and bring that back to this committee as a method of getting started. He asked Mr. Vest to report back to the Board at the next meeting. Mr. Vest said he would bring some information back to the January meeting. Mr. Vest said in the Program of Work there is a marketing plan. He said he has drawn up some information on a preliminary basis for a marketing program which included possibly doing a model building program, industrial site cleanup, and marketing that Mr. Amis mentioned earlier. Mr. Vest said he would like to present this plan to the Board today, and discuss it at the next meeting. He said he would welcome any comments, and perhaps they could incorporate any changes needed before they meet on it again. Mr. Vest advised that the Marketing Committee at the Chamber of Commerce had been working on updating our industrial materials, fact book, promotional brochure and video tape. Mr. Vest said at the last Marketing Committee meeting Mr. Cecil advised there were a lot of firms that did marketing plans for a fee, so he agreed to contact John Lovorn who has done a lot of work in Paris and see what he would do from a prospective of management consultant towards a marketing plan. Mr. Vest said in the information he had put together under Appendix B he has a proposal from Mr. Lovorn reflecting a Marketing Plan for $25,000.00 and a Target Industry Study for an additional $18,000.00. Mr. Vest said he sees the P.E.D.C. paying for the development of those industrial materials. Mr. Vest stated he referred to this information as collateral materials in this Marketing Plan. Mr. Vest said he felt the role of the Marketing Committee from the Chamber would be to help develop those materials, but he really saw it as the responsibility of the P.E.D.C. to pay for those industrial recruitment materials. Chairman Cecil stated that what Mr. Vest was suggesting here was that this Marketing Plan would be in lieu of any Marketing Plan that we were considering for some consultant, rather than in addition to that. Mr. Vest agreed. Mr. Cecil said what Mr. Vest was suggesting was that we try it ourselves and see what we can do with it. Mr. Vest agreed. 69 Mr. Vest said he had tried to identify a strategy and some major objectives of what our marketing program should be. He said he had several program elements such as retention and expansion, the collateral materials, image materials, trade shows where we would work with our allies, advertising with a tentative schedule so that we could get our name in front of people nationwide, direct mail, and also the potential to do some of our own targeting. He said he had identified food, plastics and pharmaceuticals as areas we know would be good industries for our community. He said one of the things he pointed out in this report relating to the strategy was a significant need to do more broad ranged marketing which P.E.D.C. hopes to accomplish through general advertising, working with the Texas Marketing Team and Allied Communication. Mr. Vest said in this report he had done an analyses of strengths and weaknesses of the Paris area, and he had placed some sample ads in the report from some trade publications. He said he felt it was a general marketing plan at this time, but he would like to ask the boardmembers to review it, and for them to take a shot at this before hiring a management consultant. Chairman Cecil said Mr. Vest was suggesting that prior to the next meeting for the boardmembers to study this Marketing Plan, to be discussed at the next meeting in January, and to vote on its acceptance or denial at that time. Mr. Vest said there were two things in the Marketing Plan he would like to address today which were involvement in the Texas -- Economic Development Council which he had previously referred to as the Texas Industrial Development Council. He said the Texas Economic Development Council was basically a organization for people involved in economic development. Mr. Vest said they are publishing a new directory and we need to get our memberships in by January 10. He said he had brought some applications for anyone interesting in becoming a member from this board. Chairman Cecil said this would be an appropriate expense for the P.E.D.C. to pay if boardmembers want to join the organization. Mr. Vest said there was another item where time was of the essence that is in the Marketing Plan. He said the Texas Department of Commerce is going to publish a magazine format booklet that will be printed in January and throughout the year they will use it to respond to all kinds of industrial inquiries received. He said they had asked communities to buy ad space in it, and if you buy ad space they give you an editorial copy. He said they are trying to close on that this month, and print in January. He said he felt it would be to our benefit to have some sort of advertisement and editorial comment in the book. He said they were ordering 50,000 copies to be distributed to the industrial inquiries throughout the 1995 year. He said if we are in that book, we are going to be in every presentation that the State sends out. He said he realized that it was not on the agenda and action could not be taken on it today, but he could expend the money through the Chamber of Commerce if he had a good indication from the Board that it was something that we could do. Chairman Cecil asked for an opinion on this item whether to expend the $1,900.00. Chairman Cecil said he realized this was not an agenda item except that it might fall under Mr. Vest's report. Attorney Haynes said in the discussion you would indicate as to whether or not you are in favor of the expenditure and, if the Chamber wishes to make that purchase, then it would become an agenda item in January to reimburse the Chamber the expenditure. 0 Chairman Cecil asked the members of the Board to look at the proposed Advertising Marketing Plan and you will note that one of the items, and as Mr. Vest has explained, needs to be considered at this point. Chairman Cecil stated based on Mr. Vest's recommendation he felt that this expenditure should be considered at the next meeting. Mr. Vest stated he only became aware of the "Outlook Texas" yesterday, and he felt this was an opportunity that should not be passed up. Chairman Cecil stated to Mr. Vest that if the Chamber of Commerce felt it was appropriate to make this expenditure, there has been no discussion that would lead him to believe that the Board would vote against it at the January meeting. Ex-Officio boardmember Bill Vaughan asked Mr. Vest to ask if there was any interest in the Transportation Program. Mr. Vest advised that transportation was a major issue which directly effects economic development. Mr. Vest said they will be going to Longview in February to make a presentation to the Texas Department of Transportation to try to get U.S. 271 upgraded from a two-lane to a four-lane highway which would help our local industries and our future industrial prospects Mr. Vest advised that they do have letters of support from all of our major industries that support the project. Mr. Vest said they will need the support of this Board for this presentation on February 23, 1995. Mr. Vest stated he would get some information out to the board members regarding this meeting. Mr. Vaughan advised that Leadership Lamar County had decided to take this as a project, so they will be involved in getting individuals to attend for the meeting to show support. Mr. Vaughan stated it is not resolved at this point as to how much money is needed for the presentation, but they hoped the board would leave that open in case they do have shortfall and they could reapproach this group. Mr. Vest advised he had three or four people working on the presentation at this time. Chairman Cecil asked if there was any other business and there being none he declared the board meeting adjourned. CHAIRMAN PHILIP CECIL ATTEST: ASISTANT CITY CLERK, BARBARA DENNY