JOHNSTOWN - The Fulton County Economic Development Corporation has made it a goal to lend one-third of its existing $1.5 million in loan pool funding to local businesses next year, new EDC Chief Operating Officer Michael Reese said Thursday.
"We actually have a goal to loan $500,000 of that in 2009," Reese told the EDC board at its annual meeting at the Holiday Inn.
Reese said that one of the issues he has been working on since being named to his new position eight weeks ago is the EDC's loan situation. The corporation routinely loans money to help area businesses with renovations and equipment, among other things.
EDC Executive Vice President Jeff Bray has periodically reported in the last couple years that EDC loan activity is often down, perhaps related to the declining economy.
In his loan report to the board, Reese said the EDC has $1,547,000 "in the bank," ready to loan to businesses that apply. He said the EDC retired five loans this year, and there are 42 outstanding loans.
EDC Marketing Director Lisa McCoy said the agency is doing new radio ads with Reese in an effort to boost the loan program.
"He's going to be our new voice on the radio," McCoy said.
With the radio spots, Reese said he's trying to "get in front of companies" to let them know that EDC loan program funding is available to them. If the national economy continues in a downturn, he said, such "economic development funds" will actually be more valuable to companies in Fulton County.
Bray said that in the past, the EDC was fortunate to have $100,000 on hand to lend to companies.
Reese, who came to the EDC after serving as director of the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District, said he also has been "gathering intelligence" in recent weeks about existing industries in the county. He said the ultimate goal is to retain jobs in the community and the EDC wants to assemble a team to help accomplish that.
In other business, Bray reported that the board's Executive Committee was approached recently by the Business Education Alliance to have the EDC allocate funding to it in the next couple of years. The alliance is a consortium of business and education officials in the tri-county area interested in retaining youth to stay in the area and train them for future local jobs.
Bray said the BEA requested the EDC make a $50,000 commitment over five years. The board Thursday approved a $10,000 allocation to the BEA for 2009.
He said the EDC also wants to increase its membership revenue in 2009.
Wally Hart, president of the Fulton County Regional Chamber of Commerce & Industry and a BEA member, said the EDC funding will be spent on the alliance's future marketing campaign. He said the BEA wants to obtain $50,000 for 2009, $55,000 for 2010 and $60,000 for 2011 to be used for marketing campaign efforts and to develop a Web site for the alliance.
In her marketing report, McCoy said her office is still working on a new EDC video. She said interviews were recently done with Hart, Fulton-Montgomery Community College President Dustin Swanger and Johnstown Mayor Sarah J. Slingerland as part of the video. She said the EDC hopes to be done with the new video by the end of the year.
McCoy said she has been working on budgeting for marketing for 2009, and placing ads in two magazines - "Food Processing" and "Dairy industry."
"We're also doing some Internet advertising," McCoy said.
She also gave a brief presentation on the newly revamped EDC Web site - www.sites4u.org. She noted the site has information on the history of the EDC, the county's industrial parks, photos of past EDC projects, a site map, the county's skilled workforce and new construction and economic development success stories such as the Wal-Mart buildings and Estee Commons.
"We talk about the abundance of our assets," McCoy said of the Web site. "There's a lot of information there and it ties into many other Web sites and links," McCoy said.