2000-11-15-Minutes588
MINUTES OF THE PARIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
REGULAR MEETING
November 15, 2000
The Paris Economic Development corporation met in regular session on Wednesday,
November 15, 2000, 4:00 P. M., at Heritage Hall, 1009 West Kaufman Street, Paris,
Texas. Director Jay Guest called the meeting to order with the following Directors
present: Michael Dunn, Terry Christian, and Don Wall. Also present were ex-
officio boardmembers Bobby Walters, Executive Director Gary Vest, and City Clerk
Mattie Cunningham.
Director Guest announced that the Board of Directors had been furnished minutes of
previous meetings of the Paris Economic Development Corporation. He asked if
there were any corrections or additions to the minutes of the previous meeting, and
there were none. Director Don Wall made a motion, seconded by Director Michael
Dunn, for approval of the minutes as presented. The motion carried unanimously.
Director Guest asked Gene Anderson, Director of Finance for the City of Pris, to
give the financial report for the month of October.
Mr. Anderson came forward asking the Directors to look at page two of the financial
report which shows the revenues. He pointed out that the second column shows
$66,497.71 for current month collection of revenue. He said he believes this
figure is larger than the previous year. Mr. Anderson said the interest earned is
$17,973.68 along with the loan payment from Paris Packaging in the amount of
$32,000.00 for a total amount of revenues for the month of $116,471.39. Mr.
Anderson called the attention of the Directors to page three showing the
expenditures for the month of October, which are routine expenditures with the
exception of the $6,905.00 membership fee paid to the World Economic Trade
Alliance Association.
Executive Director Vest advised that he was hoping that Kenney will be able
to attend to some of the trade shows with this association. Executive Director
Vest said for the Director's information, this is a group out of Dallas that
publishes a magazine called Outlook and they do advertisement in the magazine.
He said they get a free ad with this membership and this group does six to eight
trade shows a year, and they have the option to go to these trade shows.
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A motion was made by Director Michael Dunn, seconded by Director Don Wall;,
for approval of the financial report. The motion carried unanimously.
Director Guest asked Mr. Gary Vest to give the Executive Director's Report.
Mr. Vest reported that they have had ten ad responses from their magazine
advertisement program. They have had one lead from the Department of
-- Economic Development and that came in this morning. Mr. Vest reported that
after the last meeting he and Director Don Wall met with representatives of the
Southwest Foundry. Mr. Vest advised that he gave them a letter and listed all
the things that the Board of Directors had requested, such as the additional
financial information, a plan for salvage, and all the things that were discussed
in the meeting. He said they went over that information with them and toured
the plant. Mr. Vest advised the board that he received a letter from Southwest
Foundry on November 7, 2000 and it stated, that at this time they had made the
decision to withdraw their request for a loan guarantee and will seek other
alternatives for their capital needs. Mr. Vest said they were very interested to
learn the possible interest by a company to construct a warehouse on some of
their land, and they asked to be kept appraised of any development on that topic.
Mr. Vest said each year they have to file the comptroller's report, it has been
received and he will have it at the next meeting for the board. Mr. Vest
explained that what the report does is takes average cities around the state and
compares them with what kind of income they have, what type projects they
spend their money on and that type information. Mr. Vest also said he and
-- Director Don Wall went to the Highway 24 Association meeting and this project
is moving forward really fast. Mr. Vest said he attended the Texas Economic
Sales Tax Association meeting in Dallas yesterday and that organization is
moving along very well. This organization is trying to protect our sales tax and
lobby the legislature to see that nothing is changed on the sales tax. Mr. Vest
advised the board that there is another piece of legislation that is being proposed
which is a welfare item. He said they want to take economic development sales
tax funds and use them for welfare programs such as childcare, job training
assistance, which is all for welfare recipients. Mr. Vest explained that what
they want to do was to go ahead and do that by tapping PEDC's funds for these
type programs without having to go back to the voters, and they are going to
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fight that at TEXTUS. Mr. Vest also said the Public Utility Commission has
approach ed the Texas Economic Council for information to see how they would
feel about using economic sales tax funds to fund telecommunication
infrastructure throughout the state. Mr. Vest advised that this would be
stringing miles and miles of line between cities. He further advised that this is
not allowed by law, and he knew that their organization will fight against this
legislation.
Director Guest asked if there was any other business and there being none, he
declared the board meeting adjourned.
JAY GUEST, DIRECTOR
ATTEST:
MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK