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Friday – November 30, 2018

Center for Regional Growth Logo

MINUTES of the MEETING
of the BOARD of DIRECTORS

Friday – November 30, 2018– 8:30 a.m. 34 West Fulton Street Gloversville, New York

Directors Present: Geoffrey Peck, Ronald Olinsky (on phone), Leslie Ford, Gregory Fagan, Travis Mitchell, Timothy Beckett, Grant Preston

Directors Absent: Terri Easterly, Kent Kirch

Staff Present: Ronald Peters, Jennifer Jennings and Diane Meade

Other Attendees: Ashley Onyon Leader Herald, Vince DeSantis, Scott Henze

Public Session

8:33 AM
Call to Order / Introductions/Meeting Minutes:

Chairman Geoffrey Peck called the meeting to order at 8:33 a.m. He welcomed the Directors and guests to the meeting. Mr. Peck asked for a motion to approve the B.O.D. meeting minutes from October 26, 2018 and the Finance Committee Meeting minutes from October 24, 2018. Greg Fagan motioned. It was seconded by Leslie Ford and it passed unanimously.

Administrative Matters

Chair Report:

Geoffrey Peck– Reported on CEO Round table meeting a week ago, it was decided that communication needed fixing and we are well on the way to accomplishing that. We talked about long term vs. short term projects. Short term being the street scapeing, medium term being the west Fulton street revitalization of the basketball courts and the long term project being the Burr St project. We had strong consensus that the city would support that project. We started talking about how we would handle taking properties and administer of that size and scope.

One idea was working with the GHNIC (Gloversville Neighborhood Housing and Improvement Corporation) as part of our real estate arm of CRG. It seems natural since there are some players in place there and there is history. GHNIC is interested in this project. Ron, Steve, Geoff and Vince met with them at their BOD meeting last Tuesday and posed the idea to their board. They seemed receptive to the idea but we non-committal. They agreed to get back to us and continue the conversation.

Vince noted that after Geoff and Ron left the meeting, the board reacted very positively to the information and they seemed like they were moving forward with the idea.

Ron Peters– I guess you were going to get with Mike Albanese?

Ron Peters– Mike will be here later for the Executive session.

Conclusion of Chair Report

Committee Reports:

Executive Committee:

This Committee has not met since the last Board meeting.

Governance Committee:

This Committee has not met since the last Board meeting. Diane to schedule next meeting before the end of the year.

Finance Committee:

Ron Olinsky said there is a small surplus of funds and we have contained our expenses very well. Looked at Phil Beckett’s package, no real surprises. Looked at 34 West Fulton Street expenses, looked at loan pool report no real problems there. December 12th we have scheduled three people coming in to propose for investing the idle funds we have. We want to get the money out of the Money Market so we reached out to the investment community. We will have a recommendation for the board in December. Paul and Ron Peters have continued talks re ACH.

Ron Peters – We are good to go now with ACH.

Audit Committee:

This Committee has not met since the last Board meeting.

Building Committee:

Ron Peters advised the Board that this Committee has not met since the last Board meeting. Diane to schedule before the end of the year.

Membership & Marketing Committee:

Grant Preston. No meeting has been held since the last meeting. No new memberships to approve. Diane Meade reported on Gala as being approximately $1,000 positive but more money is coming in. There is a meeting tentatively scheduled for December 13th at 3:00 pm.

ABO Guidelines Review:

Diane Meade reviewed a portion of the ABO Policy regarding # 10-05 Annual Board of Directors Evaluation. Diane Meade supplied everyone a copy the ABO Guidance Policy for their review provided each member with a Confidential Evaluation of Board of Directors and a copy of Summery Results of Confidential Evaluation of Board Performance to be filled out by each. Diane also read the cover explanation of this records law as a reminder of guidelines.

Gloversville Downtown Development Specialist Report:

Jennifer Jennings: reported on teaching a marketing / editorial class and gave a talk about Revitalization in the Capital District at Union College so she gave a presentation. They teach a class there on this but had never thought of Gloversville before. Jennifer is teaching a class at Ag Ptech next week. They are partnering with the coop to come up with a marketing plan so she is going in to talk about marketing and editorial calendars. There will be a new Yoga Studio 33 North Main, “Twelve Green Petals” in downtown soon. She is working on the 2019 plan and the City is working better together, closer coordination between departments so we stay on task and speak with one voice.

County and City Reports:

Scott Henze- There was no meeting since the last board meeting. Scott Henze spoke about the Crosslands Park site, the 80 acers directly opposite the Johnstown Industrial Park entrance, still waiting for the appraisal. Once that is done, the IDA will move into action agreements with the property owner, once that is done I have budgeted $80k for 9 baseline studies performed by an engineer site plan will be drafted showing probably three sites that we will be able to start marketing. Very confident that this site will be on line for 2019.
Ron Peters- Have you reached out to Grid?
Scott Henze- Okay will do when we get the study. Update on Regional Business Park – Mohawk can accept or choose not to on annexation. This can go back and forth for a while. There is a three sponsoring municipalities been working on the draft of the Environmental study. We have received that. Currently forwarding to the town of Mohawk for the possible annexation. They can either accept it or what is more likely, they will send back a series of additional questions. Mohawk is the lead on this and really steering the ship. We may be stuck for a while.

President and CEO Report

Current Projects: 

Ron Peters informed the Board of current projects that he has been working on. Ron Peters- State will make CFA announcement on December 18 Ron sent the invitation to Jim Groff so they can drive there together. We will know about Pioneer Windows 2million+ grant but they are going gang busters. More in Executive session.

Benjamin Moore has gone a little quite. Evolution $81k city grant approved. We are getting a loan for them now Working on drawing that money down to get some more equipment.

Crosslands Industrial Park, still moving forward more in executive session.

Micro Grants audit went very very well and we are looking great for funding next year. There are 20 on the list already for 2019 Microgrants. We have 20-22 people waiting to get a Microgrant. Outreach, tour of Espuna Dec, 13th.

Northville, Dec 18th hear about where they stand with the local waterways intuitive grant, 5&10 breaking ground. Gloversville we have a lot of fronts going on we will cover that in more detail in executive session. We brought in some developers from the Schenectady area and met with City and Gloversville officials. It was a great they want to look for opportunities for working with Gloversville. Much better than the previous meeting, much more positive. Things are changing.

Tim Beckett do you want to talk about your store? –

Johnstown a lot of irons in the fire especially with the Johnstown Industrial Park.- Townsend store is underway. Still working with the small restaurant on Main Street.

Broadalbin zeroed down to 2 sites.

Caroga working with Scott, Travis, Kent and the town board on doing some indicatives with their sewer district. That’s going to be a real good project when we get it up and running. All things being equal, it will be a two or three year project going down the road.

2019 is the year for reaching out to other towns and building out beyond our four. Try to bring everyone into CRG. Business inquiries: two this month, one from the state and one Ron contact. Responded to one couldn’t respond to the other, more in executive session. Another from a property owner in Broadalbin looking to maybe do some workforce/senior type housing. We’ll see what we can do for financing. Very busy month. Going to be a very busy December. Still in the process of setting up another presentation with an Albany Brokerage House. They reached to me and said best to wait til January. Combined marketing efforts, John, Scott and myself going to meet in two weeks to keep that process going. Our property disposition of CIC is going well. More in executive.

Seventeen loan applications + one and two under review.
Event on M-t-w-

Going to Consultants forum which was a gift from National Grid ($1,700 value) to go. Twenty site selectors will be there. Different than the ones we see now. The more contacts we have out there the better off were going to be.

Adjournment to Executive Session to Discuss Legal Issues

At 9:03 a.m. Geoff Peck moved for a motion, Greg Fagan motioned to adjourn to executive session Leslie Ford seconded it.

Respectfully Submitted,

________________________________ _________________
Leslie Ford, Board Secretary Date

Board Meetings are held the Fourth Friday of the Month
at the CRG Main Office
at 8:30 AM

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