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08-13-2015 Approved MinutesNortheast Partnership for Economic Development Olympia Hills Golf and Conference Center 12900 Mount Olympus, Universal City, TX 78148 MINUTES OF MEETING Thursday, August 13, 2015 —11:30 a.m. 1. Call to Order and Establish a Quorum Mayor Carpenter called the meeting to order at 12:00 P.M., and a quorum was present. 2. Welcome and Introductions Mayor Carpenter welcomed everyone in attendance and had all attendees stand and introduce themselves. Mayor Carpenter thanked everyone for attending. 3. Approval of Minutes for July 9, 2015, regular meeting. Mayor Knaus made a motion seconded by Mayor Daly to approve the minutes of the meeting of July 9, 2015. The vote was unanimous. Motion Passed. 4. Approval of Treasurer's Report for July 2015. Mayor Knaus stated that the webhost contract is reflected on the report and was the biggest expenditure for July. Mayor Dennis made a motion seconded by Mayor Seiler to approve the July 2015 Treasurer's Report. The vote was unanimous. Motion Passed. 5. Information Items. A. Report from Tri County Chamber of Commerce. B. Report from Schertz Chamber of Commerce. C. Report from Randolph Air Power Community Council (RAPCO). D. Report on Bicycle Mobility Advisory Committee. E. Report from Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). A. Report from Tri County Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Carpenter stated that Mr. Pat O'Brien was still out due to injuring his leg. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Pro -Tern Kevin Hadas who stated that on the Elected Officials reception is coming up in October more details to follow. B. Report from Schertz Chamber of Commerce. 8 -13 -2015 Minutes Mayor Carpenter recognized Ms. Maggie Titterington who provided information on the Chambers past and upcoming events. Ms. Titterington stated that their Board voted to support proposition 7 which is to provide stable funding for transportation in Texas, dedicated to the construction and maintenance of roads and have submitted a resolution for approval. She stated there are over 50 Chambers and businesses also supporting. Upon passage, Proposition 7 will dedicate a portion of the general sales and use tax and the motor vehicle sales tax to the general highway fund. She stated that the Chamber have partnered up with Randolph Air Force Base during the air show October 31St and November lst, provisions for lunches for 150 military performers and personnel has been secured through a majority of 5 small businesses and 3 larger corporate businesses of the Chamber from the Cities of Live Oak, Schertz and Universal City. They are donating the money and lunches and will not be charging any fees. Some upcoming events noted: • Tuesday, July 21, 2015, Schertz Chamber Monthly Luncheon. Schertz Civic Center, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Guest speaker on target marketing for your area and business. Also Representative John Kuempel will come and provide an update on the open carry law as well as other business legislation. • Friday, October 9, 2015, Schertz Chamber Golf Classic, Bandit Golf Course in New Braunfels. Proceeds go toward the DECCA programs for Clemens and Steel High School. A few slots are still open; please contact the Chamber for information. C. Report from Randolph Air Power Community Council (RAPCO). No report was provided as Mr. O'Brien was not present. D. Report on Bicycle Mobility Advisory Committee. No report was provided as Mr. O'Brien was not present. E. Report from Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Pro -Tern Kevin Hadas who stated that he has been in several planning meetings and one is coming up. He stated that it is very important that the Mayor's get their priority lists together so that he can sell and advocate them to the board. Please provide a list of your projects to him as quickly as possible. 6. New Business. 8 -13 -2015 Minutes Mayor Carpenter stated that we did not have a speaker for today so they discussed that from time to time a meeting where we allow each individual member to give a brief update and commentary on what is going on in their cities and be aware of. A. Updates and discussion from Member Cities. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Tom Daly who provided the following information regarding some of the accomplishments in Selma: • Ground Breaking for Liberty Pass (Wounded Warrior Resident) will be held September 16th, 103 apartments homes with full time medical, mental health and job training facilities. • O'Reilly Auto Parts is constructing a 380,000 square foot warehouse /distribution center at the corner of Lookout Road & Schertz Parkway. 300 new jobs. • Bee E. Keith will begin construction in early 2016 on a 500,000 square foot warehouse and distribution center (near the O'Reilly development). 500 new jobs. • Cavender Fiat property has been purchased by the Kalig Group to construct an Audi Dealership /Service Facility. • Property Tax will be reduced to $0.206/$100 down (again) from $0.222/$100 last year. • The $9,000,000 bond that passed in May's election is funded and construction on widening Lookout Road to five lanes and a bridge over the Cibolo creek will begin shortly. • Standard & Poor's raised Selma's Bond Rating to AA in May of this year. • An over 55 development and an assisted living center will be constructed on the west side of Lookout Road at the Retama Parkway. • Rooms to Go is constructing a new store on the southbound frontage. • Titan Industrial Park, Selma Phase was named Best Development, Industrial for 2015 by the San Antonio Business Journal. • Forum Point Shopping Center has opened on the former "Ruben's Famous Enchiladas" property; tenants include Pasha's Mediterranean Cuisine, Sleep Number Bed, and a national dental facility with more tenants to follow. • Harrison House Park is complete and open to the public. Work to convert the Stage Master's House to a community center will begin shortly. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Bill Seiler who updated those on their recent Annual Marion Sausage Supper and parade. He stated that it was a very successful day; there were over 50 entries in the parade. He stated that they have a new subdivision development coming in to Marion and roof tops before the end of the year. He stated this is the first development in 37 years. They also have plans for another development. Things are going well in Marion and appreciate all the help he has received from the other cities. Mayor Carpenter recognized City Manager Scott Wayman who provided the following information regarding the City of Live Oak: 8 -13 -2015 Minutes • Tuesday Council approved to allowed kayaks, canoes and non - motorized motor craft on their lake. • At the old Civic Center site the hotel and conference center is underway. Bookings have already begun for activities March of 2016. • 54th Street Grill has been very successful, still a hard time in getting in to eat, but you can get to the bar and have a margarita. • McAlister's Deli is open and doing well. • Burger King is open and doing wonderful. • Starbucks is a different story; the running joke is everything up there is going to beat their doors opening. • Taco Bell across the street has broken ground is hopefully opening in November • Also behind this area is a large blue building planned for an indoor soccer facility. • Next door and in front is a Shell that will be leasing out this space. • Several bond projects are underway which were voted on by the voters in 2014. Updates on the projects can be found on face book. • Last week the City helped their hospital celebrate 30 years. • An Assisted Living /Memory Care Facility is being built behind their Justice Center. • Another one is being planned and they are coming for a five story variance. • Behind the Meadows Apartments/behind Kohl's there are apartments being built up on the pedestal, thanks to a lot of help by Universal City. The funding will be for families that are not low income or high income but for the mid -range families. • Randolph Brooks have come to the City for the process of their third 3`d building on their campus. • The City finished their budget and did it in an hour and a half, they are given across the board pay increases and they are also cutting .05 /nickel off their property tax rate. Things that are coming up in the City include: • September 11, Labor Day Luau at the pool, this marks their last day the pool is open for the summer. • September 11, 911 Ceremonies at the Fire Department. • September 12th, Live Oaks Picks up Day, volunteers go out to those that need assistance and volunteers go out and clean up. • September 12th, Movie in the Park, the movie is "Paddington" at one of their large baseball fields. • September 26th, is the Shindig of Shinoak. • Saturday, October 31St, Safe Halloween in the Park event. • Saturday, November 21St, Live Oak's 2nd Annual 5K to benefit Tri County Chamber of Commerce. 8 -13 -2015 Minutes . Mayor Dennis added that just off of Pat Booker "Nicha's" is open - wonderful Mexican food, excellent margaritas. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Nadine Knaus who provided the following information regarding the City of Garden Ridge: • The City took receipt of $6.6 million in certificates of obligation to fund new water wells as well as to fund some street and drainage projects. After the wells have been drilled and on line they will be water independent. • CIP construction projects are also part of this and will be kicking off next spring. • The City has a Deer Management Committee that is looking into the deer population problem and the various options. • Upcoming: there is a piece of property in one of the subdivisions that they will be annexing and taking over from the City of San Antonio. September is quiet for activities but October kicks off big with the following: Saturday, October 3`d, Lions Club Fish Fry and Auction Tuesday, October 6th, National Night Out Saturday, October 10th, for those who like to shop, Women's Club Market Place — where you can buy all things Christmas. Lastly, they used to have, what was called the Country Club — this facility was recently sold and undergoing massive renovations. The facility a huge exercise and event center called the Club at Garden Ridge. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Al Suarez who provided the following information regarding the City of Converse: • The City is going to stay at the effective tax rate and are not rising taxes • The City is going to propose a 20,000,000 bond — to fund a new city hall and to fund streets, build a new animal control facility, park upgrades. Library expansion and build a fire station on the north end of the tracks. • They are also looking to partnering with other cities that do not have a fire station close to their borders, such as Universal City. Kitty Hawk expansion building has caused the need. • New subdivision being built near Old Cimarron Trail Mayor Suarez stated that Senator Menendez has reached out to them for a satellite office in Converse at the Library and the same thing for Roland Gutierrez and Joe Farias. We will now have them accessible to them. They all indicated that they are willing the help the partnership in any way. 8 -13 -2015 Minutes • Bexar County Complex on 1604 and Rocket Lane is underway now, this is a 51 acre facility. • Their city is putting in three (3) projects to the MPO for consideration • The expansion of 1516 which is under way. • The Topperwine side of the house the road that will be expanding and will be joining Live Oak is underway. • They continue to work with Congressman Cuellar on the issue of the new gate at Randolph. Meetings will be set up with all parties to put together ideas to get help and funding from the Federal Government. • Converse has a new newsletter the first edition was sent out in July and there is also a new branding logo that EDC has helped put out. • All of their police officers now have body cameras. • FM 78/FM1604 TxDOT improvement project is out for bid. • Converse EDC will be moving from City Hall as they now have their own offices. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Lisa Jackson who provided the following information regarding the City of Cibolo: • Development on going on FM 1103 to Main Street — a lot of businesses are opening. • Dutch Boy Cleaners now open. • Eye Care facility in the same location now open — FM 1103 and Main Street. • At & T facility is also now open. • Walmart on FM 1103 has delayed their opening until January 2016 due to changes to the interior the store— first design of its kind. • CVS will be opening soon. • Wells Fargo is constructing a new facility across from the Walmart on FM 1103. Early September opening. • Revitalization is ongoing to include: The RPM facility is being revitalized to become the Ice House. • The Orange Coffee that is currently opened in Marion will be opening a second location in Cibolo in the old Cibolo City Hall. • Signage is being redone around their industrial park area. • TxDOT has found funds to put in a light at the entrance of a very busy area called Buffalo Crossing — before you get to Steel High School. • The City just completed their budget process and happy to report depending on what happens at their public hearings, they will be keeping their tax rate at the same rate as last year and will not be raising taxes. • The City will be soliciting bonds for Borgfield Road, which will be an additional street frontage where they are building the Walmart — hoping to get approval on the November ballot. Upcoming events: 8 -13 -2015 Minutes • Saturday, August 29th, Parks and Recreation have secured 30 food trucks for an event at Nimetz Park, event starts at 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. there will be live music. • Saturday, October 10th, Cibolo will be hosting the Cibolo Fest celebrating 50 years of incorporation. Mayor Jackson recognized City Manager Joe Herrera who stated that the City of Cibolo is averaging 400 new residential houses being built a year. This can add up to 1200 to 1500 residents to the City. There are a lot of demands on the City. The City Council under the leadership of the Mayor has agreed to fund through bonds about 8 million dollars' worth of projects that are coming to fruition, we are going to be opening up in Spring a multi -event youth complex — for baseball, soccer, and softball - sixty acres off of FM 78. The City is now currently in the process of negotiating and working on a new facility similar to the YMCA project in Schertz. In a follow -up to the Walmart, the sales tax revenues are going to be delayed but this facility will be the first in the United States where they are completely redoing their business concept. This information cannot be released but come January come shop in Cibolo. Mayor Carpenter stated that before he provides an update on Schertz he would like to take notice of all the activities and listen to the things going on, a lot of economic development, a lot of new business investment. He mentioned that FM 78 in Marion is looking great. As all the economic development partners know that as you reach this point the demographics of the businesses that want to come and invest in our cities changes the regional concerns, the larger companies want to invest. Mayor Carpenter stated that there is this weird magical number of 50,000 in population in the State of Texas where it seems an odd tipping point plus or minus a few thousand where all the midsize businesses and retail start to converge. We are at the beginning all of us because we are closely nestled together. As we get larger they are going to come on us and it will be an on slot. It is going to be great but it is also going to be something that we have to manage. This is something that we should continuously be in contact with each other and have the conversations that we just had. He didn't realize how much was going on and when you put all these things together and you look at the aggregate you get the picture that we are closer than a traditional 50,000 would be because we are all nestled together. A couple of things going on in Schertz: we are also putting on some bonds on the ballot in November. Three main things we are planning on building an emergency services center out on FM 1518 toward IH 10. Naturally that will affect some of Cibolo and Converse and a number of neighbors in that area. We are also putting a bond out to widen FM 1518. As you said earlier for MPO, the message from Schertz is FM 1518, FM 1518 everything else comes second. The idea is to have a partnership with MPO with the Regional Mobility Authority, TxDOT and us and pull our monies to get FM 1518 to five (5) lanes. The other 8 -13 -2015 Minutes bond is at FM 1103 to fmish the work that Cibolo is trying to do with TxDOT to make that all the way up to IH 35, so that there is no bottle neck after all the work Cibolo has done with TxDOT. That's $15 Million dollars and we are talking about a $10 Million dollar investment in nothing else but infrastructure. Streets, drainage, all those non sexy things that we have to do. Also like some of you Tuesday Council passed a measure that will take $1.7 Million dollars over four years to take care of classification and compensation issues we have across our organization. Mayor Carpenter stated that in three years we will be looking at another study to make sure at the end of four years our entire organization is at or above market for their job classification. Mayor Carpenter also stated that we are lowering our tax rate; if we kept it constant we would go over 10 %. Schertz Fest is in September, at the end of October we have the Halloween event at Pickerell Park. Mayor Carpenter again stated that we should do this twice a year to have this type of update as it is interesting to look at what is happening in our cities 7. Establish a date and time for the next Mayor's Workshop — September 3, 2015. — City of Marion. Mayor Seiler City of Marion stated that he is ready for the next meeting and it will be held Marion Library on August 6, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. 8. Establish a Date and Time for the next Northeast Partnership For Economic Development meeting — September 10, 2015. August Door Prizes — City of Live Oak September Door Prizes — City Of Marion The City of Live Oak provided the door prizes for this meeting. Mayor Carpenter stated that the City of Marion has the door prizes for the September 10, 2015 meeting. 9. Items of Interest by Members. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mr. Henry Gutierrez, Bexar Waste who stated that last week he was recently up in the East Coast (Pennsylvania) purchasing new trucks due to the growth of the cities he services, stating that dealers there are aware of the growth in our region and aware of the businesses relocating to our areas. Mayor Carpenter recognized Ms. Dawn Vernon, Drash Consultants, LLC, and Ms. Maggie Seay, Cude Engineers who stated they would like to speak to the NEP group regarding their needs for roads, highways, etc., because they know that not only due to all the cities growth you have to fix things that have to handle the level of increased traffic or you have to add to what you have and even add new infrastructure. Ms. Vernon stated that they have prepared a survey they wish for the cities to take regarding capital 8 -13 -2015 Minutes improvement projects, such as roads, highways, infrastructure, utilities, etc. Ms. Vernon stated that this survey and the information gathered will be provided to NEP. The goal of this survey is to get a better understanding of your needs and wants when it comes to capital improvements, particularly roadway construction. Ms. Vernon stated that she will send out via email the link to each member to complete the survey and the survey will be open for two weeks. Mayor Carpenter recognized Ms. Elida Bera, Judson Independent School District who stated that she appreciate all the work the surrounding cities have done. She stated teachers are back at work and the students come back on the 24th, and the school zones will be up and running. Mayor Carpenter recognized Lt. Col. Robin Baldwin, Randolph Air Force Base who stated that on behalf of the 12th Flying Wing he is excited about all the growth the cities are experiencing and congratulated each. As an airman who works at Randolph and lives in the local area all the new businesses and growth and support of the cities make the quality of life really good for the residents. Randolph is also expanding; they are expanding their remotely piloted aircraft training program over the next couple of years. and they are expecting the aircraft here within ten (10) years. With these expansions they will be bringing more people to the surrounding cities. 12. Adjournment. As there was no further business, Mayor Carpenter adjourned the meeting at 12:55 p.m. PASSED AND APPROVED on September 10, 2015. May r Michael Carpenter, NEP- Chair 8 -13 -2015 Minutes