Chautauqua Region Economic Development Corporation (CREDC)
BWB Building
201 West Third Street, Jamestown, NY
2nd Floor Board Room
&
Electronically via Live Stream on YouTube & Zoom
February 28, 2023
11:20 a.m.
Gary Henry Chairman
Brad Walters Vice Chairman
Sagan Sheffield- Smith Treasurer
Dan Heitzenrater Secretary
Steven Thorpe Member
Rhonda Johnson Member
Kevin Muldowney Member
Also in attendance:
Mark Geise Administrative Director/CEO
Richard E. Dixon Chief Financial Officer
Milan K. Tyler, Esq. Counsel
Greg Peterson Counsel
Chris Canada Hodgson Russ
Rosie Strandburg CCIDA Staff
Kayla Strandburg CCIDA Staff
Jason Toczydlowski CCIDA Staff
Carol Rasmussen CCIDA Staff
Kristine Morabito CCIDA Staff
Crystal Erhard CCIDA Staff
Jeanette Lo Bello CCIDA Staff
Jason Toczydlowski CCIDA Staff
Nate Aldrich CCIDA Staff
Rebecca Wurster CCIDA Staff
Monica Simpson CCIDA Staff
James Feldman County Executive Staff
Bill Curry Chautauqua Lake Hospitality
Jill Curry Chautauqua Lake Hospitality
Greg Bacon Post Journal
Julia Hanley WRFA 107.9
Absent Board Member(s):
Jay Churchill Member
Meeting was called to order by Gary Henry, Chairman, at 11:20 a.m.
Gary Henry
At this time I would like to open the Board of Directors of the Chautauqua Region Economic Development Corporation meeting at the BWB Building, 201 West Third Street, Jamestown New York and also via Live Stream on YouTube and Zoom. It is February 28, 2023 at 11:20 a.m. We will open with a roll call vote.
Board
Aye – Unanimous.
Gary Henry
You should have already received the minutes from the January 24, 2023 meeting and had a chance to review those. Do we have a motion to accept the minutes?
Steven Thorpe
I’ll make that motion.
Gary Henry
Thank you. Do we have a second?
Kevin Muldowney
Second.
Gary Henry
Thank you. All in favor say Aye.
Board
Aye – Unanimous.
Gary Henry
Opposed? The minutes are approved. We will move right into New Business 3A.
Mark Geise
Nate’s going to jump on these two resolutions. Nate, why don’t you take it away.
Nate Aldrich
You’ve seen us for several months now talk about the White Inn Project in Fredonia so really this is the last approval for the project. We’ll move forward full steam. We have helped facilitate $180,000 CVBG Grants through the Office of Community Renewal for NYS. The Village of Fredonia was the applicant and as I said, the IDA and CREDC helped facilitate that along with the Harrison Studio. So the $180,000 once you back out administrative expense we will be structuring it as a fifty percent term loan in the amount of $82,000 and a fifty percent deferred loan in the amount of $82,000 to assist the operating company with startup equipment and other expenses associated with the project. Again, this is based on a conservative estimate of twelve full time equivalent employees in year one and these authorizing resolutions again – Item A is a grant administration agreement with the Harrison Studio – Item B is various agreements to enter into with the Village of Fredonia and the operating company. So, pretty straight forward. I just wanted to add that this rounds out the fourth grant that we have been able to facilitate for this project – in total when you add this in we are right around $2 million dollars of funding which is about 45% of the $4.4 million dollar total project cost. Again, really glad that we were able to help make this project financially feasible and if you‘ve driven by or seen the paper more recently they are getting started on the work – very exciting. Happy to answer any questions anyone may have.
Gary Henry
If we don’t have any questions we will go ahead and look at both of these resolutions together. So, Dan if you could move resolution A and B I would appreciate it.
Dan Heitzenrater
- Resolution 02-28-23-06 RESOLUTION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CHAUTAUQUA REGION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION APPROVING ENTRY INTO AN AGREEMENT for Community Development Block Grant Administration Services
- Resolution 02-28-23-07 RESOLUTION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CHAUTAUQUA REGION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION APPROVING ENTRY INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE VILLAGE OF FREDONIA AND AGREEMENTS WITH THE WHITE INN, LLC
Gary Henry
Thank you. Do we have a second?
Sagan Sheffield-Smith
I’ll second.
Gary Henry
Ok. Roll call vote please.
Board
Aye – Unanimous.
Gary Henry
Both resolutions are approved. It’s exciting to see the progress on the White Inn and look at that one getting completed. Do we have an Executive Report?
Mark Geise
Yes. I had said earlier in the IDA Executive Report I wanted to spend a little time talking about the Partnership and we are going to start making this a habit – giving the Board ongoing updates of new and exciting things that we are working on. I am just going to talk for a minute and then kick it over to Nate. Nate has been managing this effort and he has three staff, Monica Simpson, Kristy Kathman and Crystal Erhard and they have really been doing a great job. It was originally created because I think we looked at the IDA as being more than just an entity that provides business incentives. There is way more to it. I think Placemaking is important – what’s going on in our main streets, Workforce Development, Housing is important and infrastructure as we see with this Ripley site. In my CEO Report last month I talked about some of the numbers here (slide preview – CCPEG Annual Report – 2022 By the Numbers) Reviewed slide. That will be the extent of what I talk about. Nate, if you want to I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about things that are on your mind.
Nate Aldrich
Thank you Mark. Again, feel free to interrupt me or provide commentary. What we will do moving forward is that we will try to keep this overview report very brief and instead we will provide a written report and with the CREDC Board packet each month where you will get a taste of what we are working on. We thought it was important to revisit at a high level today what the Partnership is and what we are doing. Mark mentioned Monica Simpson, Kristy Kathman, Crystal Erhard – we are proud and very pleased to add them within the last couple of years to the IDA and CREDC team, but in addition to those three wanted to also point out Jason Toczydlowski and Rebecca Wurster who are certainly valuable contributors to several projects we are working on as are the three planners from the County Department of Planning and Development who are involved – Lauren, Courtney and Emma in several other projects we are working on collaboratively with the County. Also wanted to call out Mark – He co-chairs the Partnership along with Dan Heitzenrater. We thank Dan for jumping on earlier this year to take that roll on. Really quickly the other Advisory Board Members of the Partnership are made up of County Executive Wendel, Kevin Muldowney as the PED Committee Chairman, Greg Edwards from the Gebbie Foundation, Gina Paradis from the Chautauqua County LandBank, Andrew Nixon from CCVB, Katie Geise from the WIB, Courtney Curatolo from JCC SBDC, Vince DeJoy form the City of Dunkirk, Dianne Hannum from the NCCF, Tory Irgang from CRCF, Crystal Surdyk from the City of Jamestown and Sham Baghet. That’s our Advisory Board made up of really equally public and private sector folks representing both North and South County County- wide. As Mark said, really representatives of the five focus areas that we have – Business Development, Placemaking, Workforce, Infrastructure and Housing.
Nate Aldrich & Mark Geise
Reviewed and discussed Power Point slides – 2022 Grant Awards for CCPEG Partners, 2023 Grant Awards for CCPEG & Partners to Date, CCPEG Updates, Pending Grant Applications, New CCPEG Grant Programs and 2023 CCPEG Economic Development Project Support.
Nate Aldrich
We provided you with our workplan for 2023 as well as a listing of all those allocations to help advance really a number of projects. In the interest of time we won’t go through that list today but you have it for reference and I’m always happy to answer any questions. I know that was quick and high level but we wanted to cover this again this moth and want to provide more updates on an ongoing basis since we really have so many irons in the fire these days.
Mark Geise
I just wanted to add one other thing. If you think about these municipalities that might have a part-time mayor and a clerk, they really don’t have the technical wherewithal to chase after any resources or grant funding. In a lot of cases they don’t even know where to start. So, that is really what we are providing here. We’ve got five consultants that are on retainer with us so we are able to que up projects and have our consultants help us help the community what to envision what it could be and what funding they should be going after – help them put the grant applications together, manage the grants and so that is really a big deal for these smaller communities.
Gary Henry
Thank you Nate. Certainly impressive – all the different grants we are working on and that we have been able to get – last year and already this year. We read about them in the paper but sometimes we forget about all the work that goes into it – the whole team to get those put together. Do we have any Old Business to come before the Board? If not, we will consider the meeting adjourned,
Meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m.
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(Assistant) Secretary (Vice) Chairman
