EDC Board Takes No Action On Transportation Project

The Canton Economic Development Corporation took no action on a transportation project during their regular meeting last week.

The board tabled a decision on incentives for a transportation project presented by resident Earl Post Jr.

Post started his presentation by explaining to the board that there is one bus that comes in to Van Zandt County two days a week, funded through the East Texas Council of Governments (ETCOG), to pick up the elderly and disabled to take them to doctors appointments.

He then went on to review with the board the various apartments, housing units and nursing home facilities in the area who may have citizens who have transportation needs.

With his goal to start a bus service that would run five days a week, starting in Canton, Post explained the different routes.

"The bus would run in Canton on Mondays, Wills Point on Tuesdays, Edgewood and Fruitvale on Wednesdays, Grand Saline on Thursday and Van on Fridays," he said.

Post proposed to the board that at 17 riders on the bus at a rate of $15 per person from out of town ($7.50 each direction), the bus driver would be receiving $90 a day, fuel, insurance, bus repair, a bus note, money for a future bus, miscellaneous, phone and advertising, salary increase, that comes to $255 per day.

"If you have 17 riders on that bus, at $15 a day that will cover all these expenses," he said.

He also proposed the possibility of a senior citizen dispatcher paid at minimum wage, for the future.

Post’s request was for money for two drivers and two buses.

He presented pictures and pricing for two available buses.

EDC Executive Director Mercy Rushing suggested coming up with a "transportation organization."

"You could even take them to Tyler or even Dallas and college students could even use this," she said. "The only thing is, I think we are ahead of ourselves a little bit. We need to develope some kind of transportation plan and certainly this is a city function, along with the county."

She went on to say there are some funds available for transportation, but groups seeking those funds need to be organized.

"My question is if we fund this now for $50,000, will you be coming back again next year and the year after that for funding?" Rushing asked.

Post explained that any profit made from the service would go back into the Road To Hope ministry.

"Who else is putting any money into this now?" board president Jack Etheridge asked.

"At this time I don’t have any financial backers," Post said.

When asked by board member Ross Maris if he had approached other city’s in the county for funding, Post said he had not.

"We’ve got to look at projects that can stand on their own and that we are not the only player in this," Rushing told the board. "If we start that, then we will have to do this for everybody."

The board suggested Rushing work with Post on finding grants projects through ETCOG.

In other business the board:

-last year the EDC had discussed building on the grounds which would require relocating power on both sides of the grounds.

Since then the plans have changed to go with smaller buildings, McCuistion explained.

A few of the utilities will need to be moved, but the greatest need is drainage improvement.

Drainage improvements are needed at the corner of row 94, and the city will be using some of the $80,000 to do those improvements. Those money’s were approved for use by the city last year.

"One of the projects I’ve been given by the city council is to improve flooding issues on the First Monday grounds, to reduce the number of events and as part of that we had an engineering study done by GBI to put retention ponds upstream," McCuistion explained. "That would retain some of that water…What I’m asking you to do is to use that money to help do that and it will help reduce the number of flood events on First Monday."

Because McCuistion is changing the scope of the project by using funds approved from last years budget he proposed the changes to the CEDC.

10-approved an economic development grant for a First Monday building.

The 90 x 120 square foot building or 10,800 square feet lock and leave building, McCuistion explained, will be by Row 48 and Row 94.

McCuistion said the estimated cost for the project is $500,000, which is what the city is asking the CEDC for.

Rushing said she had contacted some financial institutions to see what their interest would be on loans.

"Anticipating there may be some other projects out there we may be looking at that we don’t want to lose all of our funds at one time," she said.

Rushing said a $500,000 for 10 years at 4.45 percent interest would cost the CEDC around $5,000 per month.

On a five-year loan at 4 percent, payments would be $9,000 a month.

The board approved the grant, not to exceed $500,000 loan, at 10 years, with Rushing asked to get the best interest rate possible.

-Heard an update from Splash Kingdom President Johnny Blevins, on the progress of the company since its inception four years ago.

"Each of the first three seasons have been drastically different," Blevins said.

Annually, Blevins said Splash Kingdom services "a little over 100,000 people."

"We are very excited about how we have grown," he said.

"They come into our community, stay the day, spend money in our community, gas up before they leave, eating in restaurants," Blevins said.

He also noted that annually his business helps create more than 125 seasonal jobs, most of which are for students with a few full-time jobs.

"Payroll for the first three years has topped over a million and a half," he said.

Blevins said Splash Kingdom has formed strong relationships with other businesses to help make Canton a "destination location," which is a huge goal of his.

In 2009 they plan to expand and add another slide tower.

Expansion of the family area includes adding a 20-foot tall tower that families and adults can use.

Blevins also said this year he and his family traveled to Moldova to interview college aged students for jobs, and will be bringing in 32 foreign exchange students this summer who will be living in the area and working at Splash Kingdom.

"They have four months where they are able to come over to the United States and work with us. This will not reduce any local jobs at all. It’s a great cultural experience for them, and for our kids as well," Blevins said.

-tabled a decision to approve Burton Engineering task order for a sidewalk project.

Rushing said when she first came to Canton, several merchants made the comment that their sidewalk was not completed during the sidewalk project because the money ran out.

Rushing said when she had the opportunity to go to Austin, during Van Zandt County Days in Austin, that she made appointments with TxDOT.

She said because TxDOT is hoping to get some stimulus money for downtown infrastructure for city’s, it may become available for city’s who are "shovel ready."

"That means we have our engineering, architectural design for the project and the cost analysis for the project in place," Rushing said.

Engineer Gary Burton presented estimated costs for the engineering on the project to complete the eight city blocks still in need of sidewalk improvements, as presented by Rushing.

He said there are two main sidewalks around the courthouse, on the south and east side, that first proposed as needing sidewalks to complete the job.

The two around the courthouse would cost $50,000 in engineering before it is shovel ready, Burton said.

The total for all eight blocks is $210,000 for engineering.

-reviewed new CEDC packets for approval. After reviewing the material, which will be used to hand out to prospective businesses, Rushing was asked to add some different pictures to the front of the material to feature Canton.

The packaging will be brought back again for approval at a future meeting.

-approved January 13 financial statements.

It was reported that the city received $15,514 in sales tax revenue for the month of January which is up 14 percent over the same time as last year.

Year-to-date sales tax receipts is at $241,477, which are up 6.25 percent over the same period as last year.

"The city of Canton is very lucky, because this is the second month in a row that sales tax receipts are up," Rushing said.