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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990.02.14_OEDA MinutesOWASSO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 14, 1990 O.E.D.A. CONFERENCE ROOM, 301 W. SECOND AVE., 12:00 NOON 1. CALL TO ORDER Alan Anderson called the meeting to order. 2. ROLL CALL Present: Alan Anderson Frank Enzbrenner Brenda Lawrence Tom Kimball Patricia Marlar Absent: Bill Retherford Ron Cates Sherry Lambert Stacy Lamb Staff Present: Richard Hall Janice Fields 3. CONSIDERATION TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR JANUARY 10, 1990 MEETING. Patricia Marlar made a motion to approve the minutes of the regular January 10, 1990 meeting. Tom Kimball seconded the motion. Aye: 5 Nay: 0 Carried: 5 -0 4. CONSIDERATION TO APPROVE WARRANTS. Tom Kimball made a motion to approve the warrants in the amount of $2670.16. Patricia Marlar seconded the motion. Aye: 5 Nay: 0 Carried: 5 -0 5. DISCUSSION OF BREAKFAST. Richard Hall gave a brief summary of the spring breakfast to be held Saturday, April 21, 1990 at 9:00 a.m. The committee met for the first time on February 13. Jim Ablett has everything under control. Tom Kimball asked the board what they thought the tickets should sell for. It was suggested to sell them for $25.00 each. This item is summarized in the Executive Director's Report and attached as part of the minutes. O.E.D.A. MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING 2/14/90 PAGE 2 6. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT Richard summarized his report for the board and it is attached as part of the minutes. 7. ATTORNEY'S REPORT None 8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS The board asked how the renovation of the Health Department Building was progressing and Richard said there was still a problem with the plumbing. Brenda Lawrence, Frank Enzbrenner and Richard Hall were going to meet immediately after the board meeting to discuss the renovation. 9. NEW BUSINESS None 10. ADJOURN Alan Anderson adjourned the meeting. C. N MEMORANDUM TO: Owasso Economic Development Authority FROM: Richard Hall, O.E.D;A. Director k. 4 SUBJECT: Director's Report DATE: February 14, 1990 OWASSO QUALITY OF LIFE VIDEO Iry Johnson of KOKI, was in Owasso on Monday February 12th to film at Elm Creek Park, the Police and Fire Departments. We are expecting his finished product by next month. OWASSO TARGET INDUSTRY BROCHURE I have been working with Darell Martin of MBC Graphics about printing the map for the brochure. The map is the last item to be finished before the brochure can be sent to target industries. The map is a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) map of Owasso and the surrounding area. It is based on an Incog map but I have had MBC Graphics modify it extensively. Since the map is computerized, it may also be modified relatively easily and I hope that the map will be of use in a number of projects besides the brochure. MBC has copied the map onto acetate for printing. I will find a printer to publish the map. CORRESPONDENCE I have sent letters and information packets to two motel companies asking them to consider Owasso in the building of new hotels in the area. An Owasso resident has been requesting that I approach the motels about their coming to the city. I have also received three phone inquiries in as many months from individuals asking the nearest motel to Owasso. I have referred those callers to motels in Tulsa. I sent a letter to K -mart at the request of Jerry Cole, a local developer. On January 12th, I sent a letter to K -Mart requesting that the company examine the 15 acre tract at the northwest corner of 86th St. N. at 129th East Avenue. I have not gotten a response but I have heard conflicting reports that K- Mart is looking at sites in Owasso or that it has extended an option on property already under option north of the city limits but in the fenceline. OEUA Director's Report February 14, 1990 Page 2 LEADERSHIP OWASSO MEETING The Leadership Owasso Steering Committee met on February 1st to hear reports from four committees: Program, Selection, Finance and promotion. Susan Young and I are on the Program Committee and we met on February 7th to outline a program. We will submit the outline to the Steering Committee at its next regular meeting on February 21st. E.I.N. GRANT DEADLINE On February 5th I mailed the Oklahoma Department of Commerce information that it had requested concerning the E.I.N. The O.E.D.A. received a letter in the middle of January from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce requiring more information about public and private sector grants to the O.E.D.A.. The Department of Commerce, which manages the E.I.N. program, has recently written new regulations for the program and is trying to determine which local programs to fund. If the D.O.C. cannot expend all of its appropriated funds by the end of this fiscal year, it may not be budgeted as much money by the Oklahoma Legislature next year. I suspect that the E.I.N. administrator is also trying to pare the number of number of contractors that cannot comply with the new regulations and the amount of money given to contractors. The O.E.D.A. is still obligated to obtain private income sources to qualify for the E.I.N. matching funds this year. I have recently sent letters to five companies requesting such funds. I hope to receive their contributions for economic development in April. C.E. TOOLING Glen Cowger, the local manager of C.E. Tool, is now here from West Virginia to operate the business. The utilities have been turned on and Glen has set up an office in the former Hathaway building. I escorted Glen and his wife around town on February 1st as they looked for a home to rent. In another issue relating to the business, I received a phone call from Bob Herring of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce office on February 12th about a ad valorem tax problem at the C.E. Tool property. Mr. Al Cole of the company had received a form letter from the Tulsa County Assessor which he interpreted to mean that he was not eligible to receive a property tax break for his building machinery. I called my contacts at the Assessor's office and found that Mr. Cole owes no taxes in 1990, other than what he paid when the property was sold, because he was not operating the business as of January 1, 1990. He cannot apply until next year for the ad valorem tax OEDA Director's Report February 14, 1990 Page 3 break program administered by the Oklahoma Tax Commission. When I called Mr. Cole to tell him the news, he said that he was more concerned about a letter from the County Tax Assessor said that the business would not receive that state tax break since the building had been purchased in the name of he and his wife. I called the Assessor's office about that situation and was told that the Cole's personal ownership of the building was a problem. I have since visited with David Noss, Mr. Cole's attorney in the property transaction, and with Ken Chuculate at the State Tax Commission Ad valorem Division. Ken is the Tax Commission staff and the chief contact in this problem since he is able to approve any ad valorem proposal that has been denied by either the County Assessor or the County Equalization Board. Ken agreed with the County Assessor, though, that there is a problem with the building in the Coles' name. He said that the expensive machinery should not be a problem if it is in the company's name. The building and machinery, however, must be in the business name to receive the property tax advantage. This problem has evidently occurred before and it has been handled consistently by the state and county tax assessors. In the Cole case, the building might have a local property tax of $2,500 per year. If the machinery is owned by the family, instead of the business, the property tax bite could be even more. Ken gave me the phone number of the Tax Commission attorney, Mark Harter in Oklahoma City. I called Mark Harter on February 13th to see if he had any ideas about how to approach the problem. He returned my call on the morning of February 14th. He said that the building owner issue has been litigated by another individual and is in the hands of an Administrative Law Judge (ADL). If the judge rules in favor of the taxpayer (who in this case holds the same position as Mr. Cole) then the Tax Commission will probably adopt the recommendation of the ADL and tell its staff (Ken Chuculate) to interpret the law in favor of the tax payer and, therefore, Mr. Cole as well. That process may take 2 to 3 months. But if the ADL and the Tax Commission do not agree with the litigating tax payer, Mark thinks that the taxpayer will appeal the case to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It may take 2 to 3 years for that court to resolve the issue. The exact portion of the law is Section 6B of 2405.2 of Title 68 and the name of taxpayer who has filed suit must remain confidential even though he has evidently been quite outspoken about his position. Mark represents the tax division staff and must represent it. The division has consistently interpreted the law to say that the manufacturer must be the owner of the property. The property must also be vacant for a year before occupancy to take advantage of the provision. In our discussion of possible solutions about the problem, Mark was reluctant to recommend that the Coles quit claim the building to the corporation because the building is already occupied. One of the provision of the law is that the building must be vacant for at least one year to qualify for the OEDA Director's Report February 14, 1990 Page 4 tax relief. He did not want to recommend a course of action that would add further complicating issues. Mark recommends that he, Ken Chuculate and David Noss, Mr. Cole's attorney, meet in Oklahoma City to discuss the issue. Mr. Noss has told me that he cannot act except upon direction of his client. I plan to call Mr. Cole and advise him of the situation after the O.E.D.A. meeting. INTEREST BY AREA CLINICS On February 2nd, I escorted two doctors from Springer Clinic and Deborah Campbell around Owasso looking for a promising site for a potential clinic. Dr. Fitz (principle) and Rick Callis, Administrator of Springer Clinic, examined several sites and I informed them of Owassso's recent growth. On January 19th, an administrative aid from Hillcrest Medical Center dropped by our office to inquire about area demographics. We gave her the population information that she requested, but she could not tell us when Hillcrest may start its construction at the Southwest corner of 96th Street North and 129th East Avenue. The subdivision plat and site plan for that development was completed last fall and building could be started at any time. COMPUTER SOFTWARE We have now upgraded or purchased the following computer programs: 1. Q -Dos II update, 2. PFS Professional Write version 2.12 update, 3. Lotus 1 -2 -3 version 2.2 purchase, 4. PrinterMaster Plus update, 5. Quicken version 3 purchase. As I expected, all of the upgraded programs are somewhat different than their predecessors. Our normal pace of activity has been somewhat slowed while we learn the new programs and convert data files from old to new software versions. I have loaned my original Paradox Version 2 database software to the O.E.D.A. until we can purchase that program. The Paradox program is "user friendly" and it will be the program that we will use for the property database as well as for mailing labels. All of our mailing label data files have now been translated from DBase to Paradox. Mike Knebel and I will begin to teach Janice the Paradox program as soon as possible. E OEDA Director's Report February 14, 1990 Page 5 WAL -MART BUILDING PERMIT The long - awaited Wal -mart store at 86th St. N. and U.S. 169 Hwy. is now under construction. The subdivision plat has been released by the city but it is unknown of the property has yet been transferred from the developer to Wal -mart. The 90,000 square foot building permit fee was $6,055.55 which includes inspections, water and sewer taps, the building permit fee and the O.E.D.A. surcharge. The O.E.D.A. portion of the fee is $1,339.00. The O.E.D.A. has already received in this budget year the building permit surcharge amount projected that it would receive with four months to go in the budget year. INQUIRIES Plastics Recycling Business - I received a phone call from a prospect about the potential funding by the O.E.D.A. of a Tulsa plastics recycling business. It appears that his company had a mortgage on the recycling company which had gone bankrupt and lost a lease on its building. He called to see if the O.E.D.A. could finance a loan to move the company to Owasso. I referred him to First and Liberty banks for financial advice. I understand that the venture may not be a good credit risk. Sheet Metal Shop - I received a call from a prospect about the possibility of moving a sheet metal fabrication shop to Owasso. She was looking for a 5,000 square foot building with heavy duty electric wiring. Jim Ablett and I discussed the request and looked for a building of her specification. We could find no buildings of the specification type she requested. I finally reached the contact today. She said that the company is not in as much of a hurry to move now but that she is still interested in coming to Owasso area. She mentioned the possibility of financing the move through the Verdigris Valley Electric Co -op which has established a loan fund for economic development. She also mentioned the possibility of building a structure on vacant property. I told her that I would call her back with ownership information of vacant property in the area. SPRING BREAKFAST The Breakfast Committee met on February 13th to start preparation for the event. The committee is composed of Jim Ablett, Chairman, David Clawson, Carolyn Eddy, Janice Fields, Jo Ellen Krantz, Cliff Motto, and me. Tom Kimball and Gary Akins are also on the committee but were unable to attend the meeting. We will likely add other individuals to the committee soon. Earlier BUDGET OEDA Director's Report February 14, 1990 Page 7 Using her new computer programs, Janice has been getting the Chamber budget together. She will hopefully have the budget ready for the March Chamber Board meeting. CHAMBER DIRECTORY The Chamber staff has been working with Terri Houdyshell and Paulee Mitchell on the Chamber directory. We have almost finished typesetting the book but we are waiting on two prospective members to see if they want to join the Chamber and get their businesses in the directory. We are planning on a printing cost of $625.00 for the 500 copies which equals $1.25 per copy. The typesetting cost will be about $500.00. The 500 copies should last at least for at least two years based on our membership of 230. The directory will be given to all members but will be sold to any non members for $50.00 each, based on a previous vote by the Board. CLAREMORE CHAMBER BANQUET This seems to be the season for chamber banquets. The Collinsville banquet was February 3rd. The Claremore Chamber Banquet will be held on Saturday February 24th at the V.F.W. Building at 6:30 p.m.. A reception is planned for 6:00. I plan to go to the gala event. LM OEDA Director's Report February 14, 1990 Page 6 in the day Jim and I revised a fact sheet to send to Secretary Kemp who will be the breakfast speaker. CHAMBER BUSINESS As you have probably heard, the former TG &Y building has been leased to a clothing store and will not be available for Trail Days activities. We have proceeded with plans to hold the carnival the vacant land North of Owasso Lumber Co. We have contacted the owner through Brenda Lawrence who is listing the property for sell. She in turn contacted the owner who said that we could use the property with two conditions: that we obtain insurance for the events and that we clean the site after we are finished. Jim has contacted the Mazzio's pizza restaurant owner who owns the vacant land around that restaurant. He as also consented to the use of his property assuming the same conditions of insurance and clean -up. Present plans are to close the south half of 80th Street North to use for the carnival rides. The north half of the street O would remain open to through traffic and emergency vehicles. I have contacted the police and fire chiefs who both endorse the plan. Potential problems are that the use of the tracts will conflict with soccer and softball practices on the southern property. We will also have to acquire tents for the inside events such as the Business Fair, Crafts Fair, Cutie Pie, Lip Sync and others. Carnival and traffic noise may hamper such events that are held in a tent. Notwithstanding the problems, we still feel that the two service road properties have the best potential. Other sites of some promise are the Johnson Furniture building (which we hope is leased immediately after Trail Days) the former Reasor's building, the former Tulsa- Houston building and the Curan property, if we can obtain permission of the property owners. Rodney Ray informed me last week that Anthony's will not need to be in the TG &Y building until June or July with a proposed two week remodel time, which is probably optimistic. I called Bill Ramsey on February 12th and asked him if we could use the building for Trail Days if Anthony's will not be remodeling before the middle of May. He said that he had just received the lease proposal from Anthony's and that he would meet with company representatives on Wednesday February 14th to discuss the lease. He did not sound optimistic that he would allow us to use the building. Other than site considerations, the Trail Days planning and preparation continues. The next meeting of the Committee is Thursday, February 15th at 7:30 p.m. at First Bank. I will tell the Trail Days Committee at that meeting that we best plan not to have access to the former TG &Y building and that we best plan to borrow or rent tents to house indoor events.