Meeting Minutes

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Tim Solomon called the meeting to order around 12:05 PM

Attendance

Members: Chairman Richard Horner, Tim Solomon, Rex Erickson, Jerry Merrill, and Doug Hancey, Richard Smith

Visitors: Tyler Guthrie, Kimber Ricks (Madison County), Brent McFarland (JRW Associates), Dave Ogden, Corey Child, Cory Sorenson, Scott Graham, Keith Davidson (City of Rexburg) and Matt Nielson (City of Rexburg)

Administrative Support: Katie Cook

Administrative Items

  1. Membership Changes

The board was informed that Marsh Bjorn is no longer on the board.  Richard Smith has been nominated for inclusion on the Board. Jerry Merrill moved to approve Richard as a Board Member. Rex Erickson seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

  1. Approval of meeting minutes
    1. February 23, 2015

Rex Erickson moved to approve last meeting minutes. Doug Hancey seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

  1. March 24, 2015

Jerry Merrill moved to approve last meeting minutes. Rex Erickson seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

  1. Website Discussion & Approval

Tyler Guthrie described the website design (home page, about page, district pages, contact page, meeting and minutes page, etc.). He would build offline, get it approved by the board, make necessary tweaks and then push it live. Total for designing and developing is $3,940. A server will be needed and Tyler can provide the hosting for $25 a month. Different options for maintenance were presented for $40/hour. Rex expressed concerns on whether we need a website page or not. Request for information has been minimal to none. Tim Solomon recaps on prior meetings and options where a Website option was chosen. Another concern was that Joseph West is not in the meeting to defend the transparency of the idea. Doug Hancey motions to table decision until Joseph West can come to the board to explain further. Rex Erickson seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Note: Chairman Richard Horner has entered the meeting and will take over now.

  1. Discussion and Approval of Raising the Administration Rate Charged to 2%

Defer that to our next meeting after reanalyzing that we may not need to. Discussion will be taken later.

  1. Budget Hearing Set for August 4, 2015

This is the date that was decided on. All those who cannot make it, please let Chairman know.

Washington School District:

  1. RFP Committee Report-discussion & Approval of land development proposal

Committee met and looked over the proposal. Board would like to discuss and determine whether we will sign an agreement to proceed with negotiations in good faith or now. Recommendation is to move forward with note that agency will not be a partner. Corey Sorenson and Scott Graham introduced themselves and shared details regarding location, design, and interests from the community. Rex addressed concerns of gambling with the Urban Renewal Funds in this project. There is no guarantee of return and we would prefer to sell it to TruNorth instead for fair market value. Appraisal was done and came to $321,000. The City is thinking about being an investor for this project as well, but not official yet. Further concerns were addressed about exclusivity of project and tying the property. Richard Horner called Matt at Elam & Burke to address these concerns. Doug and Richard emphasize that we can move forward in good intent until October 31st. Matt will email the Exclusive Negotiation Agreement for further review. It is proposed to have a follow up meeting in two weeks to decide further. The City will be approached during that time on whether they will be a partner or not. Jerry Merrill motioned to accept recommendation of moving forward noting that agency will not be a partner. Doug Hancey seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

University District

  1. Discussion and Approval of Early Payoff of MY NOJO LLC Note

Richard Horner presented the agreements and reimbursements performed in the past. Remaining balance is causing an interest charge. Tim Solomon moved to pay the full amount to avoid more interest payments. Doug Hancey seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

North Highway District

  1. Consider Owner Participation Agreement for Carlow Senior Housing Project

They would like to build senior apartments and asked the Urban Renewal for assistance with this project. The one thing in question is the ditch located on property. Board is being asked for $161,909. In the past, this project was given a letter of support. Tim Solomon move to deny request for anything on the list provided. Jerry Merrill seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

  1. Payment of Remainder of Riverside Park Parking Lot and Second Access to City of Rexburg

Matt Nielson gave the status on the project. $567,000 is how much this project was awarded for the street portion. They have spent about $136,000 so far. They are projecting more costs to finish railroad tracks. Removing track would be good to open the land up for redevelopment in the future. Page 45 of the handout was explained and discussed. Matt would like to work on the field behind Kmart so that the baseball quad can be displaced since they are playing now. The plan is to perform irrigation and land work to get it ready for next year to do a premier field.  A written agreement with the school district is needed before the quad project begins. Riverside parking lot/2nd access is almost done. City Council approached Urban Renewal about lighting there. This would be an additional cost from the original parking lot agreement made 1½ year ago. Discussion occurred regarding future money. If the Agency supports the project, it would be on a cash flow basis. A suggestion was given that a percentage of the available income would be given to Riverside Parking Lot. There were discussions about how Urban Renewal would be pre-paid money or paid as it is received. Commit through the end of September $300,000. Richard and Rex recommend talking about other projects when we receive the money, rather than spending it now. Tim Solomon moved to delay conversation until September where revenue can be looked and make a final decision. Richard Smith seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

Downtown District

  1. Payment to Emergency Services for Fire Station Costs

Cory Child gave an update on how the Fire Station Construction is going.  It is 48% complete and scheduled to be completed in mid-October. Matt gave a refresher on financials of this project. $2.1 Million is the budget now with the Change orders. There is an invoice provided for payment needed. Details are on page 47 of the handout. Richard Smith proposed to pay the full $870,000. Jerry Merrill seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

Proposed North Interchange District

  1. Approval of Updated Eligibility Report

Richard Horner presented the amendments that need to be done to the eligibility report. S curve located between Moody Road and old highway and the railroad tracks. This is a dangerous intersection so the city/state is proposing that in the future they T the intersection up and install a signal. Property owners were not negative about the plan. If the Urban Renewal wants to possibly help with the S curve in the future, amendments need to be done to include the railroad and highway. Richard would also like to include a parcel of land, and a buffer strip to the plan.

Resolution, amendment to the eligibility report, and a map will be ready in two weeks for review.

  1. Discussion & Approval of Financial Plan for New District

Further discussion will be included in two weeks when documentation is ready for review.

General Discussion

  1. Setting Next Meeting Date and Adjournment

Next meeting is Thursday June 4th. If you cannot attend, please let Richard know.

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned about 3:25pm.

Minutes submitted by:   Jessica Moody