|
Town, EDC work on reaching contract deal |
|
|
|
Tuesday, September 09 2008 |
Town and economic development officials are working to reach an agreement between the two entities.
By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer
As South Whitley works through whether or not to sign a contract with the Whitley County Economic Development Corporation, there are a few issues on the minds of the town council members.
One at the forefront is how long the contract should be.
For South Whitley Town Council President Tonya Porter, a three-year contract is a long commitment for something that may or may not guarantee results.
“I feel we need to take baby steps,” she said Monday of the agreement, adding that current EDC president Alan Tio has done a great job of working with South Whitley since he took over the position this year.
“He’s gone above and beyond,” Porter said of Tio’s work with South Whitley.
Tio said Monday that the three-year contracts allows the EDC to work while knowing that the support of the towns will be there for the “long-term” process of building new businesses and working with those already in existence.
“We’re working with companies in South Whitley as well as the rest of the county,” he said, adding that Columbia City and Churubusco have three-year contracts, with Whitley County having a five-year contract.
He said it’s a new process, but designed to offer an even playing field to all local entities.
Despite the work done in recent months with the EDC, Porter still feels that locking in for three years could be a gamble, with little to no recourse available if development doesn’t pan out as expected.
Something that can help with the plans for new development or expansion of existing businesses is infrastructure, something the EDC markets when soliciting new businesses and looking for places for current shops to expand.
“Within reason, we’ll do whatever we need to do … we’ve got some empty buildings we’d like to fill,” Porter said of South Whitley’s willingness to expand or improve town utility services to available sites.
Both Porter and Tio said they look forward to moving discussions forward at tonight’s council meeting, which Tio said he plans to attend.
E-mail staff writer Chris Meyers at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, September 10 2008 )
|
