Urban Enterprise Association

Minutes Michigan City Urban Enterprise Association, Inc. Board of Directors Meeting Monday, February 19, 2018 Conference Room Global Land Surveying, LLC 601 Franklin Street, Suite 100 Michigan City, IN 46360 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Hesham Khalil, Keith Devereaux, Chris Grohs, Lester Norvell, Skyler York, Clarence Hulse. Missing: Bryant Dabney OTHERS PRESENT: Diane Wilczewski, Zone Consultant, representative from ALCO videotaping the meeting. CALL TO ORDER The meeting of the Board of Directors of the Michigan City Urban Enterprise Association, Inc. took place on Monday, February 19, 2018 in the conference room at 601 Franklin Street, Suite 100, Michigan City, Indiana. It was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Hesham Khalil, President. A quorum was present for the meeting. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion to accept the minutes from January 15, 2018 board meetings was made by Chris Grohs. The motion was seconded by Keith Devereaux. The motion carried and the minutes accepted. DIRECTOR’S REPORT Diane Wilczewski, Zone Consultant, reported on the zone activity for the month. 1 There is a seminar/workshop being held at City Hall on Thursday, March 8th regarding tax abatements. Also, a representative from the DLGF in Indianapolis will be making a presentation on the Urban Enterprise Association. All of the businesses in the area have been invited and it’s being sponsored by the EDCMC. The grant committee has also met regarding developing the 2018 grants. Diane presented a listing of all outstanding grants that have been awarded for 2017 but not yet completed and paid. Additionally, she updated the accounting software to quickbooks 2018. She presented the claims docket. FINANCIALS Diane Wilczewski announced the following account balances: Horizon Bank Money Market Account $10,072.18 Horizon Bank Checking Account $ 169,632.39 Receivables $ 7,056.00 Keith Devereaux motioned to accept the Director’s report and claims docket. Skyler York 2nd second the motion, the reports were accepted, motion approved. Clarence Hulse motioned to accept the financial report, 2nd by Skyler York, motion approved. NEW BUSINESS The grant committee met earlier in the day to review the 2018 grants. There is already a Neighborhood Beautification Program grant that runs through 2018. The committee recommends also extending the business grant program. There are a few tweaks that need to be made to the grant application. One would be to limit the number of times a single business owner can apply for these grants and the other is the amount of time after the grant is awarded that the work needs to be finished. Keith Devereaux motioned to continue the business grant program for 2018 with a maximum of $ 7,500 for each business at a 50% match and the total cap of all business grants for 2018 would be $ 75,000. 2nd by Skyler York. Motion carries. The board reviewed the 2017 business application from General Insurance Services. It was submitted at the end of the year and we asked for an additional quote from them. They’ve sent the additional quote for signage for the front of the building. 2  Chris Grohs motioned to approve a business grant for GIS for 50% of the lowest bid, amounting to $ 1,562.48. 2nd by Clarence Hulse. The motion was approved. OLD BUSINESS Diane Wilczewski updated the board on the current status of the Urban Enterprise Zone legislation at the State level, HR 1288 and handed out the full provisions in the bill. This would serve to have the local governing fiscal body (Michigan City Common Council) adopt a resolution to renew the zone for an additional 5 years. It is scheduled to go to Hearing tomorrow, 2/20/18 in front of the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy committee. According to our State Rep. Jim Pressel, the bill has a lot of support and should pass both House and Senate before our next meeting. Our zone is scheduled to expire at the end of 2018 at present. PUBLIC COMMENT There was no public comment. ADJOURNMENT A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Keith Devereaux. The motion was 2nd by Clarence Hulse. The motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 6:22 p.m. The next meeting of the Michigan City Urban Enterprise Association, Inc. is set for Monday, March 19, 2018 at 6 p.m. in the conference room at Global Land Surveying, LLC, 601 Franklin Street, Suite 100, Michigan City, Indiana. 3