Payments
Clockwise beginning with Luke Wilson (back to the camera), Terry Garrett, Donna Caffee, Lisa Boswell, Mayor Doug Smith, Jerry Garmon, Matt Gallagher, and in back Alley Bragg. Not pictured is J/E Larry Wilson who was seated in a chair to the left. Photo by PJ Martin
By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News
The Edmonton – Metcalfe Industrial Development Authority held its regular monthly meeting on Monday, March 17th with everyone in attendance.
The minutes from the last meeting on February 24th were approved with no discussion or edits.
Secretary Alley Bragg presented the financials for the period of February 24th to March 17th.
“We had our normal ESB interest deposit of $2.27, Pennington Stave Company made their payment of $10,941.90. We’re going to pay myself for bookkeeping 148.75 and then we’re going to make a payment on the ESB loan of $10,941.90, which is going to leave us with $21,635.87 (balance).”
There were no questions and after motions to approve by Donna Caffe and Luke Wilson, the financials were approved.
Chairperson Lisa Boswell announced, “Okay, bylaws, we kind of dropped the ball. We started this and then we dropped it…I would like everyone to take them and look them over this month, and plan on taking some sort of action next month. If you want changes, of course, this is not the be all, end all. If there are changes, please notate it on your copy and bring it back next month so we can just think of it and move on.”
The motion was made and approved to table the bylaws and revisit those at the next meeting.
Judge/Executive Larry Wilson discussed payments to the county. Photo by PJ Martin
In other business, Judge/Executive Larry Wilson spoke up, “I didn’t bring it up the last meeting, I think someone else, but that rather, I tried to touch base on the Stave Company. Does anyone know anything other than we know that they’re paying the city…”
It was discussed that other than the loan, the company does not owe the city and nothing else is being paid.
Mayor Doug Smith asked, “Have they paid any back to the county?”
Judge Wilson replied, “No” and explained that the county had given them a million dollars…”It was supposed to be paid back in monthly installments. They had to pay so much a month as of today, nothing’s been paid…”
He added, “I’m going to be very upfront, if I had the million dollars right now, there’s a business that’s wanting to come here. I’m working on a grant, but it’s going to take months, and then I don’t know if I’ll get the grants, but I’ve got the expenses to come into Metcalfe County, but that’s what’s going on.”
Smith asked Wilson why it wasn’t being paid and if the Stave Company had been billed to which Wilson answered, “They’re, they’re starting to yeah…Paige was sending a letter.”
“How could he be behind if he hadn’t been billed for it? Does he get billed through here…,” asked Smith.
“The county got the CBDG, yeah, we had the grant…But if we don’t use it, we’re supposed to keep it and recycle,” said Wilson.
It was explained that Pennington Stave Company (PSC) has a contract with Metcalfe County and was supposed to start paying the money back after the business started running. The date PSC began operations was June 12, 2023.
Wilson exclaimed, “Right now, I’m stuck and can’t get this other company because, I mean, certain things are he knew that he had to pay this back.”
Concerning the future business wanting to open, Boswell asked “Is this someone the board needs to vet before we” and Wilson cut in, “No, this will, it will not go in the industrial park. Uh, it’s something I’ve been working on for several months, and these people are ready. They’re just waiting on me. And we applied for the grant, and the grant I thought was going to be in January, come find out it’s October before we know, but they’re still hanging on. I met with them the other day. They’re still hanging on.”
The judge was asked why the county had waited so long to contact the Stave Company about the payment and Wilson answered, “I kept waiting and thinking things would level out more, because I want to see him make it. But this is drug on to the point now that we need to do something, because we can’t do anything… I mean he’s trying…the county should have, as soon as it got going, we should have jogged his memory, but we didn’t, but at the same time, well, if I make a deal over a million dollars, I’m not going to forget.”
Smith asked, “So, who whose fault is that? …I mean, but you just said something about jogging memory, but he knew, now you’re saying he didn’t really need his memory jogged. He should’ve just started paying it right, because that’s the way the contract was right?”
Wilson answered, “It’s 100% his fault, because if I come over here and I borrow a million dollars from the city, and I’m supposed to start paying back in 60 days, I doubt if I forget about it… This wasn’t done by me. And my thing was, he had such a rough go trying to get going. I was trying to give him time and give him a shot, because I felt like it could have been a great thing for us.”
All were unsure of the exact situations concerning PSC, but everyone expressed their hope for a good outcome for the business.
The next meeting of the Metcalfe County fiscal court is scheduled for Thursday, March 27th, and Chairperson Boswell is expected to attend and ask for the next round of RDAPP funds to be transferred over to the Industrial Board account.
The next meeting of the industrial board is scheduled for Monday, April 21st at 2 p.m.
