We call to order this meeting of the Monroe County Redevelopment Commission of July 15th, 2026. If we
could please call the roll. Commissioner Martin. Present. Commissioner Kiesling. Here. Commissioner
Jones. Present. Commissioner Tucker. Present. Is Commissioner McCarty online?
I can't read them. TSD, can you see if Colin McCarty is online? No. All right. First item is the Currie
profile bond discussion. Jeff, you're reading this, I'm assuming. Yes, and I think what I
I think what triggers this this issue is the question of whether Richland Township and Ellisville will
be merged. We will not have an answer to that until November when it goes through the election process.
Discussing this with bond council if they are merged and there is no debt on that in that TIF district
and that TIF district would go away.
Uh, we currently have a bond in that TIF district, but it was one through with, with, with the cook
group and we were accelerating the payments to pay that off early because the short, the short explanation
to the long history is, uh, COVID hit and they decided to go a different direction. Right?
I've reached out to representatives of the company, of Cook, to kind of get their thoughts on them.
I let them, and when we look at the claims, you'll notice that there is a very small claim in this packet
for payment on that bond. So we're not fully paying it off. And so we wanted to alert you to that because
that was a discussion that we had had over the previous few years and why we are deviating from that
for at least the short term to kind of
get wrapper heads around whether we want to pay that off or not. I did speak with Lisa Ridge and I think
we're going to try to explore a possibility if you guys wish us to to you know maybe do some kind of
bonding including this district and the west side to finish up the Curry reconstruction project. That
seemed to be one way where we can maintain that in that
TIF district while still having a project that would serve the district. But as, and clearly we want
to hear back from the company to kind of get a feel for what they want to do and how that is. I think
there's currently about $10,000 left in this bond. So that's why our bond payments less than $200. Now,
since it's changed ownership,
responsibility would still stay with cook they still are they still have are the ones who have the the
amount that we spent out of it right and we haven't we didn't spend that much out of it we essentially
we did the bond closing costs is essentially all the all the all that we're funding in that district
because the question would be what if we would want to fund more things in that district
I think if we want to fund more things in that district, we need to have some... I guess I don't really
want to get involved into whether... I mean, clearly if the merger doesn't happen, then we're fine.
If the merger happens and we don't have debt, then that's when the issue comes. I guess I would rather
have the debt and not gamble on
and that's really not the right word either, but not take the risk that if the merger does occur and
we lose the district when really we'll know that answer in four or five months and we could do nothing
or we could do something to keep that district in place. I guess my feeling is if we hear back from
the company cook that they really
Just want the bond to end and I think there's reasons the rdc should want that bond to end because it's
got a high An amount that could be pulled out of it the fact that it that hasn't it's it's still basically
on the books I think that that's something to look at I mean which was why we were trying to pay it
off as quickly as we could But I also don't know if the curry profile project or the curry reconstruction
project is necessarily
that we want to go through the expense of issuing a bond form, right? We'd have to look at the numbers
and that was kind of next. Okay, all right. Any other questions on that issue? Move on to item three,
the tax abatement application. Yes, and this has gone through the county council. And by statute, the
county commissioners review it because it's in the TIF district.
Kind of wanted to give you guys a heads up and let you let you know what's one of the things that is
happening in that TIF district. This this company currently has its scantia is the is how the company
has indicated that they want it to be pronounced. He also indicated a way where it said in Latin that
is different than that. But they are going to essentially they're going to go from 40 employees to 70
employees and they're going to increase their payroll by.
over $2.3 million, the average value of this real estate abatement is $10,000. So over the course of
10 years, they are going to be paying $100,000 less in taxes over that 10-year period, but their wages
are going to go from $4.2 million to $6.5 million.
Is this a graduated or is it fixed for the term? It'll start out at 100% and then year 10 it'll be...
Do we have an estimate of how much of an impact it has on the TIF revenue? Well, it will not decrease
the TIF revenue because what they're doing doesn't exist. Their current facility, which this is an expansion
on their current facility, will still be in place. That is still be taxable. This won't lower that value.
this would not have any negative effect it would just the implementation of the new development will
will take a little bit longer. Is that common for a owner of a building to have a to apply for an abatement
for it? Is that commonplace?
Yes and no. I guess we have several statements where the owner of the building also owns, which is the
case here, the owner of the business also owns the LLC that owns the real estate, and that has to do
with, I assume, taxes. But it's not uncommon for the business and the person who owns the property to
be related, or the same person,
but under different. Okay, that's where I kind of assume that might be the case, but I. I would say,
we probably have, I don't know, seven or eight different abatements out there, and I would say probably
half of them have this kind of arrangement. Okay. They've been notified. Okay.
item are minutes. We have minutes for the meeting of March 25th and May 20th. These were in the packet
that was distributed for our prior meeting which got canceled. Does anybody have any additions or corrections
to these minutes? I would just say that I spoke with
And she wanted me and so in the hard copy package to add to the minutes of May 20th that there was no
meeting in April of 2026. And I added that under the roll call and call to order section of those minutes.
People start looking for the minutes for the meeting that we didn't have. And that change would have
been made today.
Any other additions or corrections? I assume I can do these together. Correct. Do I have a motion to
approve the minutes of March 25th and May 20th? I move to approve that we approve the minutes of March
25th and May 20th, 2020. I don't have any corrections. We have a second.
I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. Excuse me, I want to make one correction. Yes. It probably
ought to be noted that I was absent from the March 25th. It doesn't say whether I'm a member of it or
not, but I think it probably ought to say that I was absent. On the May 20th? The 25th. March 25th.
I was there on the 20th. And typically I will indicate who is present and not indicate who is not. Yeah,
he just indicates who's here. Okay. All right. We have a motion and a second to approve these minutes.
Jeff, you want to call the roll? Mr. Martin? Yes. Mr. Kiesling? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Motion is approved.
Three to zero.
Next item are the claims. We have essentially our bond claims this month, the fire truck claim.
And then I, well they are the town of Holtzville fire truck for $249,045.28.
The bond of 2015 for $193,551.25. Our bond for 2020 at $323,606.25. The Hunter Valley 2021 bond for 1,230.
the County Bridge investment bonds of 2023, $56,384.80, and the 2018 Cook bond for $133.25. Jeff explained
the issue with the Cook bond. I had a question. Why do we end up with this County Bridge improvement
bonds? How does that come back to us at that amount?
Well, that is the bond that was for the Fulton Pike Bridge. And we had pledged half of our TIF revenue
from the Fulton Pike TIF towards payment of that expense. I think if you look at the packet, the RDC
was paying $76,000, a little over seven out of Fund 4922.
And the highway department out of the, I believe that's the major bridge fund is paying 633,000 in another
119,000. So they are paying the bulk of that, which was expected. Right. And the other one is the Hunter
Valley bond. There we had, we have paid
some on work for that and we'll discuss that project. This is the second fire truck payment this year?
I think this year, yes. Does anybody have any questions about these? Already mentioned.
Is this all we're paying on the fire truckers? Do we have some more to pay? I forgot. We pay twice a
year that amount and we're going to pay it for five years and I believe this is year, this would have
been ending year two is my memory. I was just trying to, my brains weren't working to think about it.
I didn't see any documentation. So this is the second payment, right? The second payment this year.
Right. I believe we made payments last year. We did.
We paid a million of the 2.5 million total. Yes. Any other questions? Do I have a motion to approve?
I move to approve the claims for today in the amount of $943,950.83. Okay. We have a motion and a second
to approve claims.
In the amount of $943,950.83 distributed, as I had stated earlier, presentation of these claims. Jeff,
please call the roll. Commissioner Martin? Yes. Commissioner Kiesling? Yes. Commissioner Jones? Yes.
Motion is approved, three to zero. Do you have the signature copies? Yes.
that to yours please. Okay next on our agenda we have staff comment. You are the staff you get to comment.
I think after I sent this off Commissioner Martin asked about for an update on the Hunter Valley Road
project. I reached out to Steve Kreider and
Who is the developer for that project and asked him what his plans were? and he sent something back
an email that indicated that they did not get their all their permitting in place prior to April 1st
and so they could not do any of the tree removal during during the because of the bat season and so
that he anticipates that
when that window reopens in October, they're gonna begin their construction project, and they believe
that they are gonna target substantial completion during the fourth quarter of 2027. He also mentioned
that he thinks his costs are going to go up somewhat, and so he may come back to the RDC to kind of
have a conversation about how to handle that. And so, I would anticipate that at some point he may come
back and we'll have
discussion. Interesting to note that succession of delays is increasing our cost on the project above
what we anticipated, which often happens. And it would be nice if we could figure out ways to get an
alignment with
our upfront expectations and the actuality of the by being able to push people to meet specific time
deadlines or have a negative consequence on their activity because it's easy for them to delay. And
I think Lisa Ridge would have to be part of any conversation about that because I think the major delay
on this one is something that she has dealt with on several projects of her own and
Every time I looked at it, I asked her about it, and she's like, this is not out of the realm of what
she's hearing people are going through for getting that permit. The difficulty is North of here. Yes.
But it becomes a significant problem over time that you end up having to pay for somehow. Any other
things you wanted to bring up?
That's the big one. I think the other one is, I assume that you guys are comfortable with me working
with Lisa to see if the Curry Pike reconstruction, if that makes, if issuing debt for that makes sense,
probably reach out to the financial advisor to get their input on that as well. Okay. And commissioner
comments. Brad, let me start with you since you're right there. No comment.
The only thing I wanted to bring up, I've got this residential TIF thing and I've been trying to figure
out. When I went to the fair, I took some circuitous routes to get there just because I could.
And it occurred to me that if we can find an area that is big enough, that does have predominantly
residential, has a little bit of commercial opportunity, that we might be able to make something work.
So I kind of scoped out the area between 48
Are you south or north of 48? What is west of the north-south road west of the airport? West of the airport.
West of the airport, the north-south road. The major one over there. I'm trying to think of the name.
I can't remember the name of it now. Heart Street's part of the curvy. Yeah, that's... Heart Street's
immediately east of the... Heart Street would be the road. Basically, curvy turns into Heart Street,
right? Right. So that's not it. It's the north-south road, which is west of the airport. That mile marker
is out there.
the name I'll know it but I can't that up again well there so that's an area roughly three miles wide
maybe four miles wide and then go south down maybe all the way to like May Road so it's a big area but it's
to be 99% residential at the present time. But it does have some very large acreage. It has some areas
closer to town that could see development. I think there's a way to probably get a sewer into part of
it, either building a new plant or looking on to city. The city actually owes the sewer district about
40 lots out there.
service at this point. You're thinking Garrison Chapel. But that's an area where we might look at a
district that could last for maybe 30 years or something like that. But it's going to take some study
to figure out whether that's even feasible because it is such a large area in terms of
what the impact would be on county tax revenues, if we take out some of the additional revenues that
would be coming in, what our obligations would be for other kinds of infrastructure in the area. We
get significant development there. I'm sure that there have to be some fire improvements in that area.
But I think that's the only area I could think of where we might have
opportunity for commercial development along 48 on the north along 45 going cutting right through it
what was your southern boundary again probably down to May Road or something like that pretty far south
it might be an area that's worth taking a look at and what I would like to do is get the the Commission's
for me to start working with the county surveyor on doing a little mapping and trying to get some of
the tax data for parcels we would identify to see whether that kind of thing is possible. Looking at
historically what the tax increments have been in that area. And we had in the past looked at around
the airport. Right. Which this is, but we didn't go that far south, right?
We want that for west. Sounds familiar. And it could be that, I mean that would be one of the areas
where we could pick up some industrial development in that area. Where's north of 48 to it? North of
48 Graceland Township? Yeah. That would be, I guess reorganized. Well north of 48 we wouldn't worry about.
We would be in it. South of that would be Van Buren. Essentially, I think it all would be in, some of
it might be in Bloomington Township. Could be that it's all in Van Buren Township. I'm not sure.
But I think, I mean, we would need to work with the surveyor to get a list of parcels, look at the
value of those parcels and how that's changed over the last few years to know if we're getting enough
growth there to even start building any money coming in. And then check with the zoning stuff concerning
what kind of commercial potential is there that's already zoned, what the zoning is on the residential
areas, whether there are some other areas where we could get
higher densities, which is certainly going to be needed to get affordable housing kinds of things. But
I think it's worth taking a shot. It's the only one I can think of. And I think there's also some probably
infrastructure needs right now in that area. I know there's some drainage and those kind of issues that
the county needs that we need to resolve. And so that would be part of what we could
You know, I think there's a more likelihood there. The only other one I can think of is picking up the
Smithville Sanders Sanders Smithville area going south lake. But I don't think that that's as likely
to get any kind of commercial development as the areas off to the west southwest. When you say commercial,
are you including like a multifamily or are you talking
A possible multifamily, but I'm mostly thinking about commercial business. Employment centers and things
like that. Yeah. Yeah. But I think it's worth it. I mean, I think it's worth taking a look at to see
just what might be possible there. If no one really objects, I will start contacting the surveyor and
planning and see if we can get a little data about what might be possible.
He might be interested, I haven't talked to him recently, but he's looking for stuff. Certainly we'd
have to get, a lot of people would have to line up behind him before we could actually. Oh, absolutely.
But I think if we don't continue our search for residential TIF opportunity, it just isn't gonna happen.
It's one of the few options that we've got available
County can get behind affordable housing initiative and I will do that any other comments questions
anything working on it that's all I can say okay all right with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn
I'll motion to adjourn. I second.