Grundy Reporter

City of Highland Industrial Development Commission met April 6.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

Call to Order:

The April 6, 2022, meeting of the Industrial Development Commission was called to order at 12:05 PM by Chairman Jim Meridith.

Roll Call:

Members present: Chairman Jim Meridith, Vice-Chairman Diane Korte-Lindsey, Treasurer Jon Greve, Marshall Rinderer and Josh Kloss.

Also present: City Manager Chris Conrad, Economic Development Coordinator Mallord Hubbard, Director of Chamber of Commerce Hillarie Holzinger, SIUE Intern Gretchen Arnold and Recording Secretary Megan Von Hatten.

Approval of Minutes:

Marshal Rinderer made a motion to approve the minutes of the March 2, 2022, Regular Session meeting of the Industrial Development Commission; seconded by Josh Kloss. All members voted aye; none voted no; the motion carried.

Reports:

Treasurer’s Report – Mallord Hubbard

Jon Greve reported the balance in the IDC account at First Mid Bank as of March 31, 2022, was $56,544.93. There were no transactions during the month. However, Jon stated $3024.82 will be taken out of the account for obligation to pay for the renovation of the LIVE Highland billboard, IDC will fund the obligation once the work has been completed and have an invoice in hand to pay from. Diane Korte – Lindsey made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report; seconded by Marshal Rinderer. All members voted aye; none voted no; the motion carried.

Update on job inquiries – Mallord Hubbard

 Trouw Nutrition held a ribbon cutting for the completion of its new Blending Innovation Center on March 29th. City is pleased with the new investment and hopeful about cooperation with the company on future projects in Highland.

 Tri-Ford has been sold to Lou Fouz (check spelling), Lou Fouz has several locations so we project this being a good benefit for Highland

 Marx Borthers has been sold to Roy Wells and will be undergoing renovations to be reopened in the future as an Irish-themed bar/restaurant.

 Dairy Queen will be sold to a new owner. The plan is to close for a period to allow for renovations and reopen a few months from now.

 Façade program has been approved for a second year by City Council at the April 4th, 2022 Council meeting. Mallord stated the program has been a very useful program for our square/downtown area.

 Enterprise Zone - Mallord reported the city is in the process of expanding the Enterprise Zone, which is a county administered program that provides a sales tax exemption on building materials purchased from Illinois suppliers.

Mallord reported the process is expected to be finalized sometime around July, 2022.

Update on Workface Development– Mallord Hubbard

Mallord reported that on April 12th, officials from Madison County Employment & Training will be making a presentation to the Rotary Club. The officials will be going over the programs they currently offer to businesses to assist in meeting the workforce challenges of today’s economy. Mallord has invited a Human Resources representative from local manufacturers and has so far gotten RSVP’s from Trouw Nutrition, Highland Machine, and a tentative RSVP from Basler Electric. Mallord also invited any Industrial Development Commission member to attend.

Mallord also spoke about a recent meeting with the Leadership Council for Southwestern Illinois. The goal is to potentially partner with them on programming for schools to highlight jobs that are in demand currently and in the future.

Mallord reported about his attendance at a recent meeting of Alliance STL. The speaker was from the site selection company, Biggins, Lacey & Shapiro. The speaker spoke about trends in the industry, which included topics on labor shortages, supply chain & reshoring, and the high demand for industrial warehousing.

New Business:

Update on Tax Revenues – Chris Conrad

Chris stated to the members of the Industrial Development Commission that Mallord thought you all would be interested in the reports we get every three months from the Finance Director Reanna Ohren. Report provided by City Manager Chris Conrad is attached.

 Revenue reports: Monthly tax revenue numbers are below, remember these are collected in December but paid to us in March.

 State Marijuana sales: With one month to go, we are at $15,500, which is up from $8100 from last year.

 Municipal telecom tax: Down 16% for the year, but the monthly decreases are slowing down, so perhaps we are approaching the near bottom.

What I mean by that is there will always be some people who will hang on to the landline phone for whatever reason (many businesses have landlines for their alarm systems for instance), so this will end somewhere around $100K for the year.

 Total income tax: We are down 12.25% as compared to March of last year, but still up 16.5% for the year with a month to go. We are currently at 130% of what we expected this to be in the budget. The total income tax includes:

 Use Tax: Down 22% for the month and 13.64% for the year (expected with the online sales tax transition)

 Income tax: These are payroll receipts that come back to us through the LGDF, down 4% for the month but up 28% for the year.

 Non-Home Rule tax: Up 20% for the month, 24% for the year, and we are at 120% of the budget right now with a month to go.

 Business district tax: Up 13.22 % for the month, 15.5% for the year, 110% of what was budgeted.

 Sales tax: Up 12.9% for the month, 15.9% for the year, we are at 105% of budgeted. Remember we increased this expecting this increase.

 Video Gaming Tax: Up $5K over any prior March collection and we are at 168% of budgeted amount with a month to go. No, I can’t explain this.

Adjournment

Marshall Rinderer made a motion to adjourn; seconded by Diane Korte – Lindsey. All members voted aye; none voted no. The motion carried and the meeting adjourned at 12:50 PM.

https://www.highlandil.gov/Boards%20and%20Commissions/Industrial%20Development%20Commission/Minutes/2022/04-06-2022%20IDC%20Mtg%20Minutes.pdf