Peoria Standard

City of Chillicothe Economic Development Committee met Feb. 7.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

Present: Chairman Dan Colwell, Mayor White, Aldermen Connor, Alderman Sharpe and Economic Development Director Parker

Guest: Sally Hanley, Greater Peoria EDC and Peoria County Board Member Jim Fennell

Alderman Colwell called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. Director Parker stated that the Chair has already approved moving up Agenda item concerning the Rural EZ expansion. Sally Hanley from the Greater Peoria EDC presented the information to the committee. She did state that the required public hearing was held here at City Hall on January 18th that is required by the EZ. She stated that she is going to all the communities that represent the Rural EZ as they all have to sign off on any amendments done to the zone. Those other communities are Chillicothe, Princeville, Elmwood, Hanna City and Peoria County are the 5 in the Rural EZ. There are no other changes to the EZ only a geography change. The addition is located north of Chillicothe. Peoria County Board Member Jim Fennell was present and stated that the County supports this amendment to the zone. He said that he wants to help with any project that promotes economic development. The other addition being made to this rural EZ is a piece of property in Trivoli, a former strip mine. This change will need to be approved by the full council. Director Parker did state that the City attorney did review the change in the ordinance for this addition. This information will go down to Springfield the end of March. Once they have approved the additional of the two properties then the work can start to take place for those projects and they can take advantage of the EZ benefits.

Next item is the 3 Diamond proposal. City attorney made a few adjustments to the redevelopment agreement with 3 Diamond. They have approved the changes and so it is now ready to go to council for approval. The agreement allows the city to go up to $200,000 on this project that is estimated to cost $9,720,000. That 200,000 is around 2% of total project cost. Alderman Colwell reminded the committee that this is still subject to them getting the project approved for the Tax Credits that are necessary to proceed with this development. There are steps they have to take on the front end before they can even put the application in for approval for the credits. Consensus was to proceed to council for approval of the redevelopment agreement.

The Mayor gave an update on the Bacon Building. He and the city engineer met with the two bidders on the roof. One was $200,000 total tear out) and the other was as $28,800 after adding in some gutters and downspouts to the project. The Mayor did say that Energy Resource Roofing said that the bid is transferable to whoever the owner of the building is in the event the City sells the building prior to the roof being done in the spring. This will be put on hold until we see if any of the 3 interested parties come through in purchasing this facility.

1807 Finney was acquired by the City today Feb. 8th. Director Parker shared the email the attorney had sent her earlier in the day laying out the steps the City would need to go through to be able to accept bids on this property. A motion will be on the council agenda to proceed with getting the ad in the newspaper for the public to be made aware of the fact that it is for sale. We currently have 3 parties interested in this property. IT is not in the TIF so there are no incentives that come with this property. The committee will need to agree upon a minimum amount for the bids. The committee agreed to go with a range between $5,000-7,000 dollars. Director Parker was asked to verify what money the City had spent so far in acquiring the property plus any additional attorney’s fees their might be, that is how the minimum bid price will be. The Mayor would like for the agreement to state the winner bid would have to make it a safe structure or tear it down within 3 months. The motion will be to run the ad in the paper for bids.

The intergovernmental agreement with the Chillicothe Park District is simply if the City of Chillicothe annex’s land they are automatically in the City of Chillicothe Park District‘s boundaries. This will have to go to council for approval.

The next item is the final payout for Flexi Snake’s façade grant. Director Parker stated that they were approved back in November for the façade grant. At that time they did not have the exact price of their 2nd sign. Now that they have it we can move forward with closing out the grant process. The maximum we are allowed to pay is $5,000. Their total project came to $12, 436.37. Consensus was to proceed with the full $5,000 total payout. Alderwoman Connor stated that she is pleased with the look of that facility it is in line with the Cedar House project and has just made that whole block look good. Alderman Colwell said that the curb appeal was a big question at the onset of that project and they really have done a good job with that.

The Mayor stated that he would like the committee to approve $1,200.00 for an ad to be placed in the program booklet for the Brad Wallen Tournament. That booklet will be in the hands of 14,000 folks so that whole idea is for them to see the schedule of the events and right next to that would be a map or a list of places to visit in Chillicothe. It’s just a way to drive traffic to our local businesses. This will be for a full page ad.

Director Parker asked to attend a grant writing workshop to be held on February 15 and 16th. The cost is $455.00. Director Parker stated that she does have money in the budget to attend. Alderman Colwell feels like this would be of benefit to the City. He did ask for a report back from the workshop. He believes there are grants out there and we do need to be prepared to go after them when we find them.

For the M & T report, Mayor White reported on the two community meetings that were held one for the not for profit organizations and the other for the downtown business owners. Both were well attended and the downtown business association seems to be off and running and already held a 2nd meeting, they even came out in the snow and came with some priorities. So the interest is there and we hope that they take this under their wing and the city backs off and let them proceed. The not for profit group is working on coordination the list of events for the whole city. They can all coordinate the events and help cross promote each other’s events.

There being no further business meeting adjourned at 6:23 p.m.

http://www.cityofchillicotheil.com/2.7.18Minutes%20for%20ED%20Committee%20%20Meeting.pdf