Loading...
07-12-1979 ? ' .. f~/f.{/(;.~~~ -- .' o o ~ CITY OF EDGEWATER INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT BOARD Regular Meeting July 12, 1979 Chairman Siciliano called the regular meeting of the Industrial Board to order at 7:05 P.M. in the Edgewater City Hall. \ ROLL CALL Mr. Siciliano Mr. Brown, Sr. Mrs. Mackie Mr. Gross Mr. Kane Mr. Loeffler Mrs. Massey Mr. Witzig Mrs. Brown Mr. Gl aser ~~ -A!J S~-{ Present Present Present Present Present Excused Excused Present APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Gross made a motion that the Board accept the minutes of the June 21, 1979 meeting. Mr. Loeffler seconded the motion. The motiun CARRIED 7-0. Mr. Gross said that the secretary should be commended on the good job that was done on the minutes. . There was a brief discussion about the financial statements that are required to be signed by elected officials and recommended to be signed by Board members. The City Attorney had asked for a.ruling on the status of the Industrial Board in regard to these financial statements. The Ethics Committee had answered that the Industrial Board came under the category of an advisory board and that it was not required that members sign a financial statement. BUDGET COMMITTEE Mr. Siciliano said that it is necessary for the Board to submit an estimated budget to the City Clerk so that it can be included in the budget for 1979-80~ Mr. Gross ~aid he felt the Board should decide what they want to do before they have any idea about how much mon~y they will need. Mr. Siciliano said that there wasn't enough time to find out what the Board is going to do. We have a general idea of the various areas that we need to work in and one of the most important is Public Relations. This is an area where we will definately need money. We also should have the Council set aside some money for grants. If we should get any grants there would be money set aside to take advantage of the grant which often is on a matching fund basis or a percentage of the grant. If there are no grants available then the money could be used for something else. We have items such as travel, public relations, advertising (which would include postage, printing, etc.) grants and administrative expenditures. It is possible that the Council would want to charge some secretarial expenses to the Industrial Board account. : Mr. G r 0 ssw ill pre par e a Pub 1 i c . R e 1 a t ion s bud get for the Boa r d I sap pro va 1 . Mr. Siciliano said that the budget is considered by line items and that the Board will have to decide what various items they will need money for and set up a tentative budget that includes these items. '.. 0' o . f A sample of a budget us~d by a City department was given to the Board members for information. FEASIBILITY STUDY Mr. Siciliano said that the Board must define their objectives. Mr. Gross said that o~r main objective should be to get more business into our area. If anyone knows any large companies that are interested in relocating we should find out what type of subcontracting operations they might need for their company. This would give us an idea of what type of smaller businesses we might be able to get for this area. Mr. Siciliano said that we want to attract clean, light industry that Edqewater can support. This would help provide employment for local residents. There was a discussion about opening up the industrial park area. Mrs. Massey said that she has had some dealings with the FEC and that they want an extremely large amount of money which would include extra insurance, railroad crossing equipment, etc. from anyone who wants a right of way across their tracks.' Mr. Siciliano said that the Zoning Board had requested that the Council authorize the City Attorney to investigate the present status of the May town spur. We need this information to find out the best way of obtaining access over the railroad tracks into that 1-3 area. Mr. Kane said that it was to the railroad's advantage if we opened up that arear.. Mr. Siciliano said that it was to the advantage of the entire City if we open that 'area up and get some light industry in here. The Board continued. to discuss the assets and liabilities of Edgewater as they concern industrial development. We do not have prope~ acces&~ t~ the industrially zoned areas. There is no City owned industrial and it will be necessary to work with private developers'. The assets of the area are the weather, cheaper labor and the fact that labor organizations are not strong in this ar~a. Mr. Sici.liano said that 'we have two approaches to finding land for industrial use. (1)' Work with private owners and (2) .try to interest the City in the purchase of some of the industrial property. (' 1/. "\ Mr. Kane said that if the City:broughi/ land they would have to have somebody manage an industrial park which would create an extra expense. It would be better to have private developers who would assume the cost of improving the area such as utilities, etc. Mr. Sic i 1 i an 0 sa i d t hat the City s h 0 u 1 d he 1 p wit h coSt's 0 f de vel 0 pin g the areas in order to make it more attractive for developers to consider improving the land. There are grants available for private developers. The suggestion of sending out questionnaires to individual households in Edgewater to obtain information on the job skills available in the - --area. Mr. Glaser said we should draw up a general plan on how the area should be developed and if the City would subsidize improvements. Mr. Siciliano said that if the City were to subsidize there should be guidelines for the developers to follow. The Board might ask the Council if they were wil~ing to assist developers in regard to improvements. If the Council aqrees then we could contact the owners and tell them that the Council-has agreed to subsidize or assist them in developing the utilities and roads. He asked the Board members how they felt about this suggestion. 2 ~ ~ . ... o u .'Mr. Kane said that he felt the word assist was better than the word subsidize. Mr. Glaser said that the owners of the property will have to be willing to possibly accept some financial part of the development themselves or sell the property to someone who would develop it. If we don't have a prospective industry that wants to build in the area how can we go to the owners? Mr. Gross said that we should find out if the owners are interested in having their property developed. Mr. Siciliano said that he felt the Council should make some commitment first that they would be willing to assist in developing the area. Then we would find out from property owners or developers if they are interested. If either group says no then the prodect wouldgo"down the drain. ~ Mr. Gross said that the Board should contact each owner and let them know that we are trying to get some industry in this town and find out if they would be willing to sell their land for this purpose taking into consideration the fact that the City may help them with the installation of improvements. Mr. Kane said that if we don't ask the Council first we would not be able to tell the property owners if the City will give them some help in developing the area. Mrs. Massey said that the land presently zoned 1-3 is a lot of vacant land that isn~t-paying taxes no~. If we can get across the railroad track 'andstart opening the area up for development then the rest will come but we have to start somewhere. We are not talking about going in there tomorrow and putting in sewers and w~ter lines and streets. What we should do .is qo to the Council and show them that there' is land here 'in Edgewater-that yo~ can't even get to and so the fir s t step w 0 u 1 d b e C 0 u n c ill sap pro val tog eta s t r e eta c r 0 s s the railroad track and into this area. Mr. Loeffler said that we ought to have a plat of the area and a sketch plan for developing the area. We would be able to show this to the Council and the property owners in the area. Mr. Siciliano said that this was.a good suggestion and that possibly we should have this plat before we approach the Council about any assistance in developing this area. Obviously, we .need to get a road into that area before any improvements could be considered. The formulation of a sketch plan along with a plat of the area will be on the agenda for the next meeting. This should include the area zoned agriculture to the west of the 1-3 area. Mr. Siciliano said that he will bring in all the inrormation he can get on this area and the Board will work on this at the July 26, 1979 meeting. We have had votes of confidence from the Planning Board and the Zoning Board on the necessity of a road into that area. In the meantime, the City Attorney is checking into access across the railroad. The Chairmen of the Planning Board and the Zoning Board and the Industrial Boards should write a joint letter to the Council concerning this access road. ~TATE DATA PROGRAM Mr. Siciliano said that we had received a letter from the State Dept. of Commerce asking .if Edgewater was interested in sending information to be included in a data ba~k. If a prospective industrial developer wants information on areas in Florida this information will be available to them. It is in the form of a survey and the City is working on getting this information to send to Tallahassee. He also has received information that the Edgewater - South Volusia area appears to meet the basic eligibilty criteria for some operating capital assistance programs. Some of these would be business/industrial loans, construction and equipment assistance, site acquisition, etc. Mr. Loeffler made a motion to Adjourn. T h r In e r> tin a I',' a s a rl i () lJ r n e d . Mrs. Mackie seconded the motion. ISl/hmittpd bv Nilncv Blazi)