City gives WREDC a boost

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — After careful scrutiny and asking many questions, the Worthington City Council Monday approved the release of $16,200 from the 2010 economic development levy for the Worthington Regional Economic Development Corp.

“It’ll be 12 years in April I’ve been on the job,” said WREDC manager Glenn Thuringer. “When I started, we had very little land prepared for development… we had very few programs to help fund development, we had very few if any training courses that aligned with economic development. … If you look at where we’re at, and where we’re positioned for economic development, we have never in 12 years been positioned the way we’re positioned now.”

The $16,200, Thuringer said, will fund:

* Attendance and a booth-style pavilion at the International Bioscience Conference, for $5,000.

* Attendance and a booth-style pavilion at the WindPower conference, for $1,000.

* Travel and lodging expenses relating to the conferences, for $2,700.

* Web site improvements, for $2,500.

* Office equipment, for $2,500.

* Middle school and high school-level bioscience labs during the local bioscience conference, for $2,500.

Although the city council supported the expenditures, Alderman Lyle Ten Haken and Mayor Alan Oberloh both expressed concern with where the money would come from — the 2010 economic development levy, rather than the WREDC’s budget.

The 2010 economic development levy, approved by the city council as part of its budget, consists of $86,000, including the $40,000 the city of Worthington had budgeted for the WREDC in previous years. The WREDC’s budget comes from Nobles County, Worthington Public Utilities and the city of Worthington, along with private entities.

By asking for the money to be taken from the levy rather than its budget, the WREDC was shifting an expense it had incurred every year from its budget to the taxpayers of the city of Worthington, Oberloh said.

“We were hoping there would be new ideas” for effectively spending the additional money provided by the levy, said Alderman Mike Kuhle.

Alderman Ron Wood said he believed the additional funds for an extension of the bioscience programs for students at the local bioscience conference qualified as a new idea.

Alderman Lyle Ten Haken pointed out that approximately $7,000 of Thuringer’s request qualified as new and innovative, but asked if there had been a hole in the WREDC budget in previous years.

“We were going over budget and using our savings for the last four years,” Thuringer said.

City administrator Craig Clark reminded the council that requests for travel and conference funds had to be approved by the WREDC board, which will also prioritize conferences based on how well they achieve WREDC goals.

“I don’t think you’ll find this council pulling up stakes (on economic development),” Ten Haken said, explaining that since the council switched its funding methods for WREDC, the issue of funding sources would continue to be addressed. “I certainly don’t want to be perceived as throwing cold water, as much as I want to be perceived as being prudent… using (funds) to the best of our ability and getting a return on our investment.”

The council, except Alderman Mike Woll, who was not present, unanimously approved the request for funds.

In other business, the council Monday:

* Discussed the performance evaluation of Clark as city administrator, which was positive. Wood thanked him for a good year, and Alderman Scott Nelson noted Clark has been an asset to the community.

* Accepted a gift of 1.36 acres of property from Pheasants Forever.

The land had been part of a larger 80-acre parcel of property in Bigelow Township, which was to be donated to the State of Minnesota, to be managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

However, the state did not want the 1.36 acres because of an easement granted to the Water and Light Commission for two production wells on that portion of the property, and Pheasants Forever offered the city of Worthington the land instead.

* Approved $16,829 in site preparation assistance funds for the Prairie Rehabilitation redevelopment project located at 315 Oxford St.

The city had already allocated $68,539 of its $400,000-plus in Site Preparation Program funds toward the project, which cost more due to more extensive than expected environmental cleanup costs and the former buildings’ footings and foundations also being larger than expected.

The Site Preparation Program is meant to encourage the redevelopment of existing commercial or industrial properties and project locations must be within the city’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District.

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