City-county ED talks held on BR&E visits

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert Mayor Jerry Mazur and the Van Wert County Board of Elections again worked on combining the two entities’ economic development entities, with Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E) visits the primary focus of the meeting.

On Thursday, Mazur, the commissioners and County Economic Development Program Manager Sue Gerker reviewed a list of businesses where BR&E visits had been held in the past and also looked at streamlining the process, as well as how to shorten a related survey and the actual BR&E visits.

The fact that the state no longer reimburses local ED entities for providing BR&E survey information was seen as an opportunity to develop a much briefer survey to make the process more palatable for participating businesses.

The commissioners and Mazur also agreed that BR&E visits should be brief and center on what local ED agencies can do for businesses.

In addition to the BR&E process, the mayor and commissioners continued a discussion on how a combined ED agency would be structured. Both sides seem to agree that a board of seven members would be optimal, with one county and one city government representative and two members appointed by the city and county. Those six appointed members would then appoint a seventh member so that there is an uneven number of members in case of a tie when voting on an issue.

City and county officials also reviewed the organizational structure of the Greene County (Tennessee) Partnership, a combined city-county ED entity based in Greeneville, Tennessee, the city where Van Wert native Scott Niswonger now lives.

Mazur, the commissioners, and Gerker also reviewed job descriptions for an economic development director they obtained from Paulding, Mercer, and Defiance counties, with more fact-gathering to come before a job description is created for a local economic development director.

Also attending the meeting was Commissioners Clerk Ryanne Bollenbacher.

Several meetings are planned in the next couple of weeks to continue the discussion on combining city and county ED functions.