Union County Economic Development Corporation

P O Box 1208 1119 Washington Avenue La Grande , OR 97850
Phone: 541-963-0926
Fax: 963-0689
e-mail: ucedc@eoni.com
website: www.ucedc.org

Minutes

November 16, 2006

Monthly Meeting: 6:00 p.m. at UCEDC Office 1119 Washington Avenue , La Grande

Meeting Facilitator: Tim Seydel, President
Board Reporter: Violet Trapp, Administrative Assistant
Executive Director: Craig Thompson
Members Present: Janet Hume-Schwarz, Tim Seydel, Mark Davidson, Sheri McDonald, Bill Whittemore , John Howard , Dennis Spray and Howard Perry
Absentees: Lori Hines, Dale Case, Steve Rzonca, and Russell Lester

Visitors:

The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. , by Tim Seydel, President.

Tim Seydel entertained a motion to approve the October Minutes .

Mark Davidson moved the board accepts the minutes with the correction to change the name attached to Property Committee from Janet Hume-Schwarz to Mark Davidson and the name attached to Communications/Marketing Committee from Mark Davidson to Tim Seydel. Janet Hume-Schwarz seconded the motion. The motion carried.

OLD BUSINESS:

UCEDC Funding Request to City of La Grande / Marketing - Craig Thompson

John Howard and Craig met with City of La Grande Manager, Ron Singel, to discuss 4 or 5 items concerning marketing.

1. To encourage the City of La Grande to adopt the 5% real estate commission to be consistent with UCEDC.
2. To adopt a pricing policy or guideline to be consistent with UCEDC.
3. To have the city list its land with John Howard , (John will not receive a commission). These 3 items are extremely important so that the city and UCEDC are together on these factors.
4. To update the brochure of the business park. The lots need to correspond with the sub-division plat.
5. To do a major overhaul of the UCEDC Web Site.

John has a colleague that was contacted at the meeting. He is very knowledgeable on web site design for marketing. John has used the fellow quite extensively. The plan is to go through the web design and get a cost proposal to present to the city council meeting on the 4 th of December along with the other four items listed above. The board agreed to get a proposal for the web site design.

Business Park Signage and Tour - Craig Thompson
The sign is finished with the five real estate agents listed on the board.

There was a good turn out of people for the tour, November 8 th , of the La Grande Business and Technology Park . Craig said the people were given a copy of the business park brochure, the sub-division plat, and pricing policy and covenants.

Dennis Spray asked if there is still completion work on the park. Howard Perry said the infrastructure and paving is completed. There are still some curbs and sidewalks to be poured. It is now too wet to continue with the concrete work this fall unless there is a break in the weather. Most likely the completion will be in the spring of 2007.

Downtown Retail Committee Update - Craig Thompson
The official name for the committee is Downtown Renaissance Committee. The draft of an action plan is completed. This includes activities and what sub group will be responsible for implementing the activities. The sub groups follow the 4 standard approaches to downtown development which is promotion, financing, design, and organization. The next step is to approach the stakeholders in setting up the sub groups.

REPORTS :

Finance Committee: - Janet Hume-Schwarz

UCEDC is currently showing an $11, 459.66 loss as of 10/31/06 . This does not include the loss on the Oveson Receivable.

UCEDC is $16,000 below budget in income and $3,500 under budget in expenses.

There is $12,800 in the bank with $3,500 for the general fund and $9,300 for the Property Committee Fund.

The balance in the LOC Account is $39,853.91 as of 10/31/06 .

Property Committee: - Mark Davidson

The committee met and discussed the pricing schedule and decided to leave as is for the present time. One inquiry has come in on the 11 acres remaining in the Baum Industrial Park and three inquiries about land in the La Grande Business & Technology Park. A copy of the Pricing Policy was handed to each board member with the committee recommendation that the wording Pricing Policy be changed to Pricing Guideline. The reason for the change is that each proposal will be reviewed and evaluated on its merits.

Howard Perry moved that the Pricing Policy be changed to Pricing Guideline. Dennis Spray seconded the motion. The motion was approved.

Communications/Marketing Committee: – Tim Seydel
No report

Membership Committee – Janet Hume-Schwarz
No report

John Howard mentioned that at the time of the LGB&T Park tour Craig handed out a list of realtors that are members of UCEDC and that any individual realtor that pays a $100 annual membership fee will be added to the list.

Executive Director: – Craig Thompson
HNS paid off the balance of the loan it had with UCEDC. The check for the amount of $85,166.58 was received and deposited into UCEDC checking account by Eastern Oregon Title.

Administrative Assistant Report – Violet Trapp

• September Minutes were sent to the membership and partnerships.
• Financial Reports (Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Statement and the Budget vs Actual), through October were given to Janet for the Financial Report.
• The membership list is updated through the month of October.
• All the board member binders are updated for the November Board Meeting.
• Invoices and letters for November membership renewals were sent.
• Thank you letters and membership certificates were prepared and are ready for delivery to the renewed and new members.
• Renewed memberships for the month of October are;

  Northwood manufacturing, Sandridge Agriprises, A & B Enterprises, and Bronson Lumber/Royal Rock

New members;

Cindy Arnoldus, Remax Real Estate Team, Century 21 Eagle Cap Realty, ERA Driggers and Associates, and Ranch and Home Realty

• The newsletter is due to be published in January. If anyone has an article to be entered in the letter please have your article in by December 31.

Craig said he received a phone call from Horizon Wind Energy asking if the company could write an article for the newsletter. Craig suggested that it might be a good idea to open each publica-tion to one or two UCEDC members for an article.

Dennis Spray mentioned that he would like to have Horizon Wind Energy come to a board meeting to give a 20 minute presentation. Tim Seydel said he would follow through with a contact to the company.

NEW BUSINESS:

Survey of Membership : - Craig Thompson
The Executive Board asked Craig to form a questionnaire to get a survey from the membership about the performance of UCEDC.

Craig gave each of the board members a copy of the proposed questions. Craig will make the changes that were suggested by the board.

Prospects: - Craig Thompson
There are three active prospects interested in land in La Grande Business & Technology Park and one prospect interested in the 11 acres in Baum Industrial Park .

Janet said that UCEDC needs to do something to get the land sold. It is costing too much in real taxes.

Mark Davidson moved that UCEDC list the 11 acres in Baum Park with the same arrange-ment as that of the La Grande Business & Technology Park . Janet Hume-Schwarz seconded the motion. The motion was approved. John Howard abstained.

Howard Perry moved that the price of the land be listed at $15,000 per acre. Mark Davidson seconded the motion. The motion passed. John Howard abstained.

Election of Officers: Tim Seydel
Dale Case and Tim Seydel are to meet and appoint nominees for the offices of the UCEDC Board of Directors. Elections will be held in the December Board Meeting.

By-laws Committee Report: Tim Seydel
The committee reviewed the by-laws and recommends that ARTICLE XII that was dropped be reinstated into the by-laws as ARTICLE XI.

A copy of the proposed change to the by-laws was given to the board members.

ARTICLE XI

These by-laws may be altered, amended or repealed, and new by-laws may be adopted by a majority of the directors present at any regular meeting, or at any special meetings if at least ten (10) days written notice is given of the intention to alter, amend or repeal, or adopt new by-laws at such meeting.

Mark Davidson asked that ‘to board members' be added following given. The article to read:

ARTICLE XI

These by-laws may be altered, amended or repealed, and new by-laws may be adopted by a majority of the directors present at any regular meeting, or at any special meetings if at least ten (10) days written notice is given to board members of the intention to alter, amend or repeal, or adopt new by-laws at such meeting.

This change will be sent to the board members 10 days prior to the December 14 th Board of Directors Meeting.

FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER

It was decided that the December board meeting needs to be moved from December 21 to December 14 at 6:00 p.m.

Meeting Adjourned 6:59 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted by:
Violet Trapp
Administrative Assistant 

Note:

Next Board Meeting: Thursday December 14 , at 6:00 p.m.
UCEDC Office at 1119 Washington Avenue

Executive Meeting: Tuesday, December 5 , 2006 at 7:30 a.m.
UCEDC Office at 1119 Washington Avenue