Jefferson Local Development Corporation
Guests: Ernie Kenison, Celia Wolny, Lisa Wheeler, Judie Tilman, Deanna Johnson, Stephanie Mehus, Peter Degel, Shirley Vossler, Mayor Craft. 1. Call Meeting to Order and Minutes The meeting was called to order at 2:05 p.m. by President, Joe Calnan, at the Boulder City Hall. Joe recognized the guests present. He reminded the board and guests present that when addressing someone on the board, first address the chair, then the person. This will help keep the meeting orderly. As a quorum was present, Joe continued with the agenda. Minutes from the January 17th meeting were approved as published. 2. Boulder South Campus a. Sewer Report Tara reported the sewer on the South Campus had blockage problems. The sewer was plugged due to ice build up causing pipe damage, resulting in a shut down of the sewer at AYA. Staff worked with Bruce, the maintenance person, at AYA over the weekend to get the problem fixed. The 12" pipe required special equipment, which was hard to find. About 70-100 feet of sewer had to be dug up and replaced. Building 8's line was also frozen because of the backup. The line had to be drilled and thawed. The ordeal lasted about a week. The lines are now cleared and functional. An insurance claim for this has been submitted and staff is waiting to hear back from them. Staff is meeting with Mayor Craft at 4:30 today on another matter and will also address the sewer problem. b. Boiler Report and Discussion Tom distributed a fact narrative sheet on the boiler stating the old boiler problem, considerations, and four options to consider for courses of action. The information he obtained on small claims court listed a $3,000 recovery limit and the claim would need to be filed in Lewis & Clark County. He suggested the board select one of the options and close out the issue. Ed said in lieu of recognizing the fact that JLDC has already had communication with the contractor and JLDC's history with the contractor, JLDC is better off with putting a claim in small claims court. He feels if JLDC goes with option three, may end up with attorney fees and no settlement. He feels we should go with option two. Joe asked if staff has contacted the county attorney on this; he feels this to be a good first step. He recommended staff contact the county attorney and go over the sheet with him as he may have a better suggestion. Tom H. said he spoke with the engineer out of Bozeman who is familiar with the case. He felt JLDC would have a tough case with all the different entities and time involved. Joe would like the staff to go to the county attorney and resolve the issue at the next meeting. Joe would like to know about the statute of limitations timeline and if the County Attorney would be able to take the case. Joe said it will cost some money and will need to be sorted out as to who's responsible. Ed made a motion for staff to take the issue to the county attorney and focus on alternatives two and three. If the county attorney agrees that either of those are a reasonable alternative, then staff can take the initial steps along either path to 2) pursue small claims court recovery or 3) prepare the letter to the contractor. Pat seconded the motion. Pat said this should be done by the next meeting. Joe asked Tara if she was comfortable with that; Tara indicated she was. Mike asked Ed if this eliminates option one; Ed said "no". The motion stands if the county attorney agrees that alternatives two or three are reasonable ideas, than JLDC will focus on those and proceed. If he says the best way to go is alternative one, then basically the motion becomes a moot point and staff comes back to the board. Motion passed. 3. Montana Tunnels Mine/Montana Tunnels Advisory Group (MTAG) Tom reported MTAG met last week. He said it was a productive meeting. Jeff Levell, one of the key MTAG members, took a job elsewhere. MTAG is now in reorganization and has decided to expand their advisory group membership to include a Clancy School Board member and a Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) representative. The mine currently has 200 employees and all is going well. The mill will start operations March 20th. An open house just for the employees will be held that day to celebrate being back in production and operation. The mine is moving forward with what they call the M-Pit plan that will expand pit operation and increase mine life. Tunnels is pleased with the progress they are making and things are moving forward. John Schaefer, Montana Tunnels, felt the MERDI report was a good facility assessment. Board approval is needed to pay for the MERDI report. The potential 67 acres of property for the business park was put back on the table. Montana Tunnels is open for discussion on doing a deed transfer or a lease for the land. Joe feels this is a good opportunity to take advantage of getting MTAG back on track. Mike Korn, FWP representative, is currently on a sabbatical from MTAG; Joe will contact him to see if he is interested in becoming an active member. Joe said we need to pay the $11,000 MERDI bill and asked what fund the payment will come from. Tom H. said the invoice was part of the HUD drawdown. Board approval is needed to pay the invoice. Pat made a motion to pay the MERDI invoice for the Montana Tunnels facility assessment. Jim seconded the motion. Ed asked staff if they feel specifications were met. Tom H. read the report and said there were a lot of similarities between that report and the one previously done. As far as what JLDC asked them to do, to make an assessment, utilization and condition of the facilities, that is addressed in the report. John Schaefer said at the MTAG meeting that he felt it was a pretty accurate assessment. Tom H. said it did not have the same level of detail as the other report. Motion was approved. 4. Golden Sunlight Mine (GSM) / Community Transition Advisory Committee (CTAC) a. CTAC Meeting Update Tom H. said 16-17 people attended this month's CTAC meeting. The mine currently has 150 employees plus 25-30 contractors. Progress and production are moving forward. The mine explored two targets last year with disappointing results. They are still pursuing a potential target they would like to explore and are in the process of trying to obtain funding for the research. Some engineers are also looking at a potential pit redesign. Mine closure is still expected the first quarter 2008 and mill closure late 2008. A contract has been signed for remote ore processing with another supplier. The business park lease signing event went well. The Governor, other Legislative leaders, and Barrick President, Greg Lang, attended and spoke at the event. There is about $600,000 in the Metal Mine account right now to split between the schools and the economic development account (1/3 - 2/3 split). The account will continue growing until the mine ceases production. b. Update on Architecture and Engineering (A&E) Tara gave an update on the Architecture and Engineering (A&E). The main bulk of the document is almost complete except for the actual costs. DEQ approval is still pending for the water and sanitation plans. Staff is in the process of negotiating the final cost and will then send in the set of documents to close out the grant with EDA. Ed commented on the final cost submitted by the engineers involved in the project. He said the Project Manager sub-contracted to a couple other firms. The project has been involved in a lot of delays due to the lack of sufficient project management and resulted in increased costs to JLDC. Ed says they feel JLDC has a valid claim against the architect and are discussing what the appropriate approach to that would be. A proposal needs to be put together for the board to act upon. The details will need to be worked out. If this plan doesn't work with the architect, Ed feels JLDC needs a fall back position of binding arbitration but keep it out of the courts and get it settled quickly. Joe asked if the architect/engineers are aware of at least his position stated in previous meeting minutes on this situation. Tara and Tom assured Joe they are very aware of this; they receive the meeting minutes. Ed said staff could actually formulate the proposal and send it via email prior to the next meeting. Tara said we actually need to do this and get the grant closed out and pay them as soon as possible. c. JVP Lease Status Tom H. said GSM is receptive to the Sportsman's Group and 4-H groups establishing a range complex at the old JVP site. JLDC still holds the lease on the land until the end of March. A NRA representative did a range assessment this week; the report will be completed within the next week or two. The concept is to have both an indoor and outdoor shooting range. The mine thought that would be a good utilization of the property. Tom H. said that Metal Mines money put in $40-$50,000 out there in infrastructure improvements; wells, sprinklers and septic. A motorcycle group is exploring a potential location for a professional motorcycle race track. Tom H. has approached the mine on their behalf and they are open to looking at some suggestions as to where they potentially would like to locate the track and what their concept plans are. d. Other GSM requested a Resolution be done by the JLDC Board authorizing Joe Calnan, as JLDC President, to sign the Sunlight Business Park lease. The Resolution is to be sent to Barrick. Tara distributed and read aloud a Resolution staff completed for the board's approval. Ed moved JLDC adopt Resolution 2007-1. Mike seconded the motion; motion passed. Joe signed the Resolution. Staff met with the mine manager regarding establishing the value of the business park property in the future for potential right to buy and gave him a copy of JLDC's appraisal. A one-page addendum may be added to the lease establishing the land value. Staff will work on drawing up the addendum and will send it to the mine's legal department next week. Jim had a question from the staff report regarding business park financing and asked if someone would expound on it. Staff met with a member of the initial Business Park Committee who had some contacts with bankers in Three Forks and Helena. They discussed financing of potential businesses wishing to relocate or start operations in the business park. Staff is in the process of coordinating a financial meeting with area bankers and government funders to assist with developing a finance strategy and some marketing literature. Joe said he would like to be involved. Tara reported the bankers were excited about the business park and they thought it would be a very appealing and interesting location for businesses. They may have clients interested in moving there right now. Tara had comments on the build out of the business park. She did some research into an EDA grant as a build out of Phase 1 and it looks a little tougher than she thought. With cutbacks in budgets and a lot of development going on in our region, there are more grant applications in than money available from EDA; time is running short and there is not a lot of money. She said JLDC will need to look at two or three different sources of funding. JLDC will do an EDA grant that needs to be matched by State money, which means a CDBG grant probably, and then there might be a need for private financing like the development of the South Campus, maybe a loan or something. Lisa Wheeler, the new Economic Development Planner with Headwaters RC&D, will assist with the EDA Phase II grant. 5. Community Development / Human Service a. Meth Treatment Center The center is moving along and is in various stages of completion now. Sue Carroll said the facility has been completely staffed and some of the people employed are from Boulder. She stated employees need to be hired and working in a training mode six weeks prior to the opening of the Center which is slated for April 9th. An Open House is in the planning. b. Horizons Study Circle Tara said Boulder is close to wrapping up their Study Circles. Celia said their Action Forum is March 27th, 7:00-9:00 p.m. and things have been going well. Joe said that one of the objectives of this program was the emergence of leaders and wondered if that was happening. Celia said "yes" and that takes us into the next segment of the program which is called Leadership Plenty. That segment is more about training for leadership and bringing it back to Boulder and training others in the community. Tara said all is going very well in Whitehall also. Eight Study Circle groups meet Tuesday evenings and there are two day groups. There are a total of about 125 people involved in the process; an average of ten people per group and 21-22 facilitators. The Steering Committees are now starting to look at the next step in the program, which is Leadership Plenty leadership training. Three community members plus Tom H. and Tara will attend the leadership training. The people trained next week will train a minimum of 25 people from each community on the leadership training. It covers topics such as conflict resolution, building partnerships and taking action. It is intended to add depth to the leadership in the community. c. Boulder Housing Committee The Boulder Housing Task Force is working hard on a number of different projects including a survey of seniors, a survey of the housing quality in Boulder, starting a Habitat for Humanity chapter, and further organization of the Task Force itself. Two public meetings are planned for March 1st at 1:00 p.m. at the Senior Center and 6:00 p.m. at the Boulder City Hall. A Task Force meeting will be held at 5:00 p.m. that evening at the Boulder City Hall. Habitat for Humanity had an organizational meeting Feb. 15th. Ernie attended the meeting and said there was a reasonably good turnout and the concept was very well received by the people. There was lots of enthusiasm and excitement and it came across as an extremely positive and hopeful end for everyone. Joe said when JLDC first got into this, one of the concerns was trying to find land to build housing on. He knows there is a piece of land in the progress of being purchased to build housing on. Also, in talking with Pat, 30 acres of land would be available across from her health mine to build on. It's her sister's property and she is willing to take on a partner, to finance, and is flexible in working with somebody with the Boulder mindset of affordable housing for young employees being drawn to Boulder to work. Joe asked if there is a role JLDC can plan as a facilitator in this. Tom, Tara & Pat will brainstorm for possibilities. Joe said he looked at a draft of the Senior Survey. Tara said it has now been approved by the committee. The plan is to start with the seniors in the Study Circles, the seniors at the Senior Center meeting on March 1st, and to visit the churches and ministers to help with the surveys. d. Next meeting Human Service Committee The next committee meeting will be March 14th at 9:00 a.m. These are quarterly meetings to get the heads of the major human service players in Boulder together to talk about their operations and increase communications among themselves and their organizations and the community. It's a good time and a critical time to keep communication lines open with AYA expanding, the Meth Treatment Center nearing their opening, and the ground breaking of the high security facility at MDC. Dick said the Tourism Group met this week. There may be discussion in the future on finding a building for local artists and so on to co-op. 6. Staff Annual Review Joe has someone helping him with the format he wants for the evaluation process. He would like the evaluation in a format that is tabulated into another form when it comes back to him showing how the board feels on each issue. Mike said there is a free website, surveymonkey.com, that would do this. Joe's plan is to email the evaluation out to board members and would like it returned via email to him before the end of February. Tara and Tom H. had their MSU evaluations by Steve Siegelin earlier this month. 7. JLDC-County Commission Meeting a. Report on County-JLDC Working Group Mike said they had a meeting last Thursday and said it was mainly a meeting to lay out what everyone's potential issues were. Mat and Bonnie had concerns relating to legal liability. There was talk about past minutes from when the JLDC went from a being a Task Force to the JLDC and that an agreement was to have been drawn up between the county, possibly MSU, and JLDC on operational issues. This agreement never happened. Chuck wants full disclosure on everything JLDC is doing. Bonnie said she did some investigation with previous Commission members that sat on the JLDC board and the members were getting the information the public wanted all along; it was just not shared with her office. It was noted that all documents to be recorded should go to Bonnie at the Clerk and Recorder Office as this is where they are recorded. Mat, the County Attorney, will do an agreement that talks about the operability of all three entities together (MSU, Jefferson County, and JLDC). Steve said MSU will want to review it to insure staff is not restricted in areas of ingenuity, creativity, entrepreneurship and that sort of thing. Mat will start the agreement; staff will get him information for the agreement. Bonnie and Nancy will start looking at assembling back information to build a binder book and then will add each month's agenda, staff notes, minutes, and financials. Mike's concern is for the confidentiality of BEAP projects or potential businesses coming to the community. He said the Chair and Board members need to think about this, especially with the BEAP and BRAP projects. Perhaps a policy is needed to have an executive session where names and businesses are not in the permanent record. Joe said regarding confidentiality, it has been made clear in about every discussion we've had, JLDC won't engage in that type of discussion in a public manner and this should be understood by everybody. It has not been an issue in the past. Regarding the agreements, Joe is hopeful that the Ad Hoc Committee, with Mike as Chair, will come to the board with recommendations. Mike says we need an agreement submitted, financial reporting, agendas, staff reports, and minutes given to Bonnie at the Clerk and Recorder office. There was talk that when JLDC was established, JLDC would become self-sustaining or stand-alone; need intent of meaning of what self-sustaining was. Concern is for when the Metal Mines money goes away, the county may not be able to fund JLDC. Mike said that before the money goes away, perhaps JLDC should go to the county for a mill request for a tax levy to fund JLDC or go to the business park or any development spurred by JLDC and have some of their revenue earmarked for JLDC. Mike said that may be the biggest hurdle; what that definition means to everybody. Mike said it was a very good meeting. Ed has two comments: 1) Self-sustaining issue. Initial words he heard used to describe the issue were the words "stand alone". JDLC needs to be careful not to get caught in a moving reinterpretation of what 'stand alone" means. "Stand alone" may have been an off the cuff remark to describe a category or describe a behavior, not JLDC or the predecessor group not having any kind of structure. Now that JLDC is a corporation, it has that structure. It has the ability to stand on its own two feet. That does not necessarily mean that those words were describing financial self-sustainability. JLDC needs to be careful about the definition moving along and being reinterpreted versus what was originally said. Ed thinks that's a problem. JLDC needs to go back to the very first time that was brought up and find out what those actual words were as he has a feeling what may have been a casual comment back then has now been interpreted that JLDC must be financially independent and "stand alone" or self-sustaining. 2) Confidentiality. Important that when JLDC has our BEAP and BRAP projects, to write a confidentially statement in the contract. In the agreement with Commission, JLDC needs to be specific stating those agreements fall under a confidentiality umbrella which exempts them from being fully discussed in reporting. Tara said Steve Siegelin, her MSU Supervisor, said four things in order for MSU to agree to the agreement with all parties. 1) Tom and Tara, as faculty of MSU, need to have freedom to meet the needs of their constituents in a creative and innovative manner; they need to have that freedom to work creatively and innovatively; 2) They need to work in an environment to succeed in the tenure process which Tara is in the process of; 3) Because Tara is the chair of the office, that she would still be able to serve as chair and county department head and; 4) That MSU would also always want to retain supervisory responsibility. MSU is open to input but wants to maintain supervisory responsibility. He was clear that with any agreement that involved MSU faculty, he wants to have it be a three-way agreement. He would prefer an agreement that has the three-parties signed to it versus two separate agreements. The three parties being JLDC, Jefferson County. and MSU. Tara took other things took away from meeting. Mat will work on a contract with input from all folks involved. Tara pressed the self-sufficiency issue as she wanted to know as an MSU employee what that means. She asked Chuck if that meant he was not in support of having a relationship with MSU, which results in MSU paying one-half of the extension agent's salary. Chuck said he voted in favor of it. She took that to mean that self-sufficiency means that yes, they will maintain the staff support with MSU but look for JLDC to be self-sufficient in regards to operating funds. This year the county gave JLDC $80,000 toward operations. Commissioner Notbohm is okay with staff support. Tara feels that if they had copies of everything the board has, they'd be happy with it. The board needs to decide if they are comfortable turning that information over and going forward. Tom talked about different options available with Quickbooks for financials. He said another option would be to leave the money the county provides for operating expenses from the Metal Mines money in a fund at the county level and submit invoices to them for payment. This will all need to be decided on and will probably be a part of the operating agreement. Ed said it's important to have the support of the entire board on what happens and not just a discussion and input from one of the board members; he is wondering how this will be accomplished. He asked if there will be a recommended agreement that goes to the board for adoption or what. Mike said, in his mind, the committee will come back to the full board for approval after we have a document. Ed clarified he was referring to the "board" as being the Board of Commissioners. Mike said all three parties will sign it. Joe spoke with Glenna Obie, the Commissioner on the board at the time JLDC became a corporation. She said "stand alone" was a random comment made that someday they'd want this group to be able to "stand alone", the term wasn't defined and she doesn't remember who said it, was just said at the time. Mike will email Scott Mendenhall, JLDC Manager during that period, for his take, input, and views. Joe said that the board needs a full slate for recommended proposals on the agreement, reporting, and funding to come from Ad Hoc Committee. After more discussion, Joe asked staff to make an organizational chart showing the board, staff, commissioners, etc. Ed said that sometime in the future, referring to his elevator story, we could point to a set of jobs and secondary jobs that are in the economic realm of the county and adding to the economic growth of the county if we do our job correctly, which he feels JLDC is doing. He said JLDC has projects on the board now that will lead to jobs for the county in the future. Those jobs are going to create tax revenues. If part of the taxes that are paid go to the county and come back to the JLDC, this is a form of self-sufficiency. It's a self-feeding circle and a valid and useful mission JLDC can serve and he considers that to be very self-sufficient. 8. Staff Reports a. Tara said OT Mining got approval to do their drilling; something that JLDC has written in support of. Tara, Tom and Barbara Sunderland attended the Bureau of Business and Economic Research's Annual Economic Outlook Seminar in Butte. The seminar focused on the opportunities and impacts of a rising Asia. b.Tara said staff has a meeting today with Don and Mike Monitor and Boulder Administrative Services as part of the BEAP project for the Boulder Administrative Services and the city to talk about extending sewer and water to the other side of the highway just south of the river. As part of that, she needs to get a sense from the board as to if they are willing to do a $30,000 engineering study that is needed. Tara said they are looking at a couple different sources for grants; however, both grants need matching funds, anywhere from $5-$15,000. She needs an indication from the board if this is something they are in favor of. She said staff will be more specific where funds would come from as they get closer to deciding which fund to go after. Funding could come from JLDC operations, the RLF, or the county commission, but a sense from the board as to if they are in support of this extension is needed. She feels it would be a great opportunity. There is a lot of land on the other side of the highway south of town that, once it has infrastructure, it could be a great place for businesses to expand. She said there are two businesses interested in going there now and more might be interested if there were sewer and water. Joe is in support of expanding also to the rest area as it would open potential there. He would entertain the possibility of making a financial commitment to this. Ed asked who owns the land. Mike said Molitors own about 11 acres, some lots are owned by the county, there is also adjoining lands that at one time the owner was interested in a KOA or something to that effect, and a housing development is in back that would have input. The land is all in city limits with no city services on it now. Tom said they are looking at two grants. The meeting today at 4:30 is for Headwaters to proceed with looking at the Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund for a grant. A commitment that a match will be there is needed before Headwaters can proceed. Dick asked if land is available there for other businesses. Mike said the county has 3-4 county lots, Monitor owns 11 acres, and he gave the names of a couple other landowners. He said Molitors may or may not need all their 11 acres depending on how streets are established. The mayor explained the present city water/sewer system. Mike said potentially this project could fix the old sewers in the south campus. This would be an upgrade and expansion project. Joe asked how the money/charges are recovered. The mayor said through charges for use of the system. Joe asked what was needed from JLDC. Tom said approval for JLDC support for the grant match. The $5-$15,000 could possibly come from RLF funds. Ed said he had an uncomfortable feeling. Listening to discussion, it sounds as if this would greatly benefit some private landowners also and he's not sure if it is a correct expenditure of JLDC funds to act as a front end funding channel to allow this private development. He said it's a contrast to other projects where JLDC has land interest in the improvements. He said it's not necessarily JLDC's mission to be funding for private developers. Mike said he sees the issue here and is not sure if he could even vote on this if it would come to a motion. He said if it looks like they (Molitors) decide to go forward and potentially whether it's perceived that their land is receiving any benefit from this, he may very well have to resign from JLDC for that reason. They don't want any issues that someone could potentially think that he's getting benefit from being involved with the board. He said there are time issues for one organization wanting to locate in that location as they'd like to build this fall. Pat also is wondering if this is an appropriate use of JLDC funds. She feels perhaps the county could be approached for the matching funds. She said she agrees with Ed that there is a conflict. Ed said if the JLDC could have a cost recovery method to recoup the initial recovery of the engineering costs, he'd be comfortable with that. Tom H. addressed the recent sewer problem at the South Campus. He said JLDC may have an issue with the city. The city said they had no agreement to take responsibility for the sewer because of the old lines. However, JLDC recovered a document that shows JLDC spent $155,000 for utility upgrades there and it was signed off on and now feels JLDC needs to negotiate with the city. Something needs to be done with the sewer lines; they will still be an issue with the development of Building #6 at the South Campus. New lines, which would be part of the Engineering Study, would benefit JLDC and the development of the South Campus and, at the same time, there would be a potential expansion of services to within the city limits just going across the highway. The study would give JLDC an idea of what the cost would be to run the line. Pat said JLDC could put in their share, and also perhaps the city and county could help and look at recovery funds. Joe has concerns that embody everything everyone has said here. He said this is the first he has heard of it. He feels it's premature at this point and that more information on cost recovery and how it works, the quality of lines out there right now, etc. is needed. He thought it was usually a sewer improvement district that did this. Joe said JLDC wants to go further, but needs more information before committing to this. Mayor Craft said his personal assessment is that a subdivision is developed already in the Southwest part of town and most of the burden lies with the developer. When the facilities at the South Campus were reactivated, the city said a firm "no" to taking over the water and sewer systems because of the age of the sewer system. Now there are double problems. The JLDC South Campus needs to be looked at and evaluated on if that sewer system can hold anything further and whether the lagoon system can hold more. He thinks the water system is okay. The sewer system needs to be looked at. As to who's responsible, he said originally, the land owner, which was South Campus. He said the State got rid of the property for a reason; they didn't want anything to do with the upgrading that was coming. Pat said she fully supports JLDC's contribution. She said this needs to be addressed as there will be growth. Joe asked if this is really what we want to do. Do you want to create another business community there. The mayor said as far as development, what an ideal spot for either an industrial park or a business district. Zoning can be addressed as it comes to the City Council. Judie Tilman, Headwaters RC&D, said there is not a time limit on the Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund grant for the Engineering Report but the money is on a first come, first serve basis. She said the grant is not as determining as what businesses are going in there. Time is of the essence for one of the businesses. The Engineering Report is not done overnight; it usually takes four-five months. Judie said more than the grant, the business' desire is to move as quickly as possible is what's important. Discussion followed. Joe asked staff to put together a white paper on this before the next meeting and if needs to be done before the meeting, it could be, else bring it to the next meeting. He would like answers to some of the questions and issues discussed today. Ed said that if there is going to be a white paper and suggested a proposal as well, a couple of the elements in such a proposal might be: 1) If JLDC is going to be financially involved in this, that it be a supplemental financial involvement to complement a pro-rata share from the existing property owners; 2) Have a method of future cost recovery in the event the area is developed and property values go up. Property owners could somehow channel our original investment back to JLDC so we can recycle those dollars on another project. 9. Comments & Questions a. Individual Board Members and the Public Ed said don't let the elevator story die until it's resolved. He wants something to be decided on. Jim thanked Mike for bringing the conflict of interest up; he wondered about that himself. It's an interesting concept we need to look at and see where we stand before we get ourselves in trouble. Jim was unable to attend Larry Swanson's presentation but got a full set of slides and reviewed them and later attended a meeting with him. He asked if JLDC hired him and for what exactly. Tara said the Commission paid for him at JLDC's recommendation for an analysis of Jefferson County. Tara said his report is not yet completed but will be by the end of the month. She will send Jim a list of what was asked of Larry. Pat said the county representative (Tom Lythgoe) is not here today and asked if he is aware of this discussion about infrastructure. Joe said the Commission will be. Pat stated they really need to be aware of this discussion. Tara gave an update on the Farmers Markets in Whitehall and Boulder. She said the Whitehall Farmers Market can officially be called independent. Whitehall's market was very successful last year and met recently completely independent of Extension or JLDC. They held a meeting and elected officers. They have gone under the Chamber of Commerce and are completely independent of Extension and JLDC. Same thing can be said for the Boulder Farmers Market. They have worked independently to become a non-profit status and they are doing well and have determined people. Tara is thinking more and more about her tenure. The Tenure Committee is being strict and she is thinking very seriously about the tenure process. A minimum of five training programs is needed per year. She was going to do the trainings using just the Horizons Program. Steve Siegelin told her in her recent evaluation that training in just one narrow area is a fairly week slate of training. She is now thinking of expanding her trainings in more than one area before June. Tara also wants to encourage the board to think of Ed's plan to review the Work Plan quarterly. She would like to think more about bigger picture issues and spend more time on how we can move things forward versus day-to-day staff related issues that Tom and her can do. Joe said he was disappointed that other mines weren't in attendance at the Business Park Signing Event in Whitehall. He would like to concentrate on a "Meeting of the Mines" for mining issues, similar to the newly created Human Service Committee. It would bring together some people in mining collectively and the meetings could be hosted around the county. Joe will talk with Tim Smith at Montana Tunnels about this. Tom said representatives from the Elkhorn Mine have been attending the CTAC meetings and hope to set up something similar in Boulder eventually. Ernie Kenison said from the standpoint of a Boulder citizen, please consider the South Boulder Campus and the potential there. He could just picture a mall in the building with the arches. As a wish list, he would like the South Campus developed. Lisa Wheeler came today to introduce herself. She is the new Economic Development Planner for Headwaters RC&D. Every five years Headwaters has to deal with a Comprehensive Economic Development review. This is her project and strategy for the next five years. Lisa will be working with Tara and Tom. She needs a wish list for short and long term projects. This encompasses five years and is looked at each year for updates. She encouraged looking at long-term. Judie Tilman said the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy report is required by EDA. To have a project funded by EDA, the project needs to be on the Economic Development Strategy. The plan is not one that just sits on a shelf; it is used a lot. 10. Next meeting will be Wednesday, March 21st, 6:00 p.m. at the Boulder City Hall. Meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Notetaker Close Window |