BY MELINDA J. OVERSTREET / GLASGOW NEWS 1
The Barren County Economic Authority covered a variety of business at its most recent meeting, including authorization of Maureen Carpenter, president and CEO, to work through a right-of-way matter with the Glasgow Water Co.
That vote followed a closed session of less than 10 minutes.
Maureen Carpenter, president and CEO of the Barren County Economic Authority, provides a report on staff activities during this month’s authority meeting. MELINDA J. OVERSTREET / GLASGOW NEWS 1
Carpenter reported on several activities with which she’d been involved.
A project development application to the state for $1,081,000 was in the third round of reviews, she said, and she had been contacted with some questions and was able to clarify that the infrastructure portion of the South Cooper Industrial Park was fully funded, so this money would help with earth work to additional sites in the park. She said she anticipated hearing something in the next few weeks on that application.
In other business:
–Halfway through the fiscal year, the capital account was sitting at just under $910,000, the operating account at about $80,000, and the economic development fund at $88,000, Carpenter said. All certificates of deposit held previously have been rolled into one that totals $641,000. The revolving loan fund has roughly $6,400, which brought total bank accounts to roughly $1.72 million.
–Gary Hartell, who chairs the Administrative and Personnel Committee, reported that that group had met and reviewed a preliminary draft of the combined strategic plan for Barren Inc. Barren County Chamber of Commerce and the economic authority and reviewed some personnel policies to update them.
–The authority approved renovating what had been a shed on the South Cooper property to make it usable by an existing industry that was interested in using it as a small dwelling.
–She noted a couple of events at which she’s been engaged to speak.
“So that’s huge, we’re out there seen as a people that are doing things right,” she said. “That was our goal …, to be an example of economic development excellence.”
–Carpenter reported they are at 68 percent of goal for meeting with existing targeted businesses and are continuing to schedule additional interactions.
“Most of them are at full employment. They don’t have a lot of positions open, just a handful here or there,” she said, adding that things are starting to calm down with supply chain issues so things seem to be going more smoothly on that front for existing industries.
–“We ended the year last year with nine site visits with eight companies,” Carpenter said. “We had two site visits this week, so we’re already hitting the ground running there. We had three new projects come in since Jan. 1, so a lot of activity.”
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