MAINE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2003

A meeting of the MCDA Executive Committee was held at the Eastern Maine Development District Corporation, Conference Room in Bangor on Thursday, December 4, 2003 at 10:00 a.m.  Attendees were:

1.            MEETING CALLED TO ORDER:  President Matthew Eddy called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

2.            TREASURER’S REPORT:  Ron Harriman was absent for this meeting.  Tony Levesque questioned the COSCDA line item expense and asked whether on not there was a carryover from the previous year’s expenses.  Mr. Eddy replied that we would ask for an explanation from Ron Harriman.

3.            MEETING MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7, 2003:  Isaac Wagner made a motion to accept the November meeting minutes as presented; seconded by Mary Walton. The minutes were approved as presented.

4 & 5.    REVIEW OF SCHEDULE & PROGRAMMING/JOINT MEETING WITH MAP:  At the November 7^th meeting, a draft schedule was worked on and tentatively agreed upon. 

January Meeting: It was pointed out that holding the Affordable Housing/Downtown/TIF training session at MSHA could be a problem whereas they were in the middle of a building rehab project.  Orman Whitcomb stated that the training and meeting could be held at DECD offices and he would reserve a conference room.  Peter Merrill was contacted and he thought the workshop was a good idea and was prepared to conduct a presentation.  It was suggested to contact Jim Nimon to make a presentation on TIFs in general and to invite someone from a community who was experienced in TIFs.  Matt Eddy will coordinate this workshop, which is scheduled for January 30, 2004 with an Executive Committee meeting scheduled concurrently.

March Meeting: The March 5, 2004 meeting will be held at the Northern Maine Development Commission and the workshop topic will be Pine Tree Development Zones.  Potential panel speakers include Peggy Schaffer or Jim Nimon from DECD; Bob Clark or Alain Ouellette from NMDC; Jonathan Daniels or John Holden from EMDC, and Orman Whitcomb or Mike Baran from OCD.  Mary Walton will contact the potential speakers and coordinate the workshop with assistance from Joella McBrearity.  Orman distributed copies of the final proposed Pine Tree Development Zone rules.  Mary stated that she would send out tourism related info to the invitees related to the 2004 World Cup Biathlon being held in Ft. Kent that weekend, as well as other winter activities in the area.

April 15, 2004 Meeting: It was decided that although there could be a morning meeting planned, no workshop/training should be scheduled due to other activities and booth staffing needs during CD day at the Legislature. 

June Meeting: The Town of Fort Fairfield will host the June 11, 2004 meeting and the topic will be Downtown Villages/Tourism Marketing.  Tony Levesque and Isaac Wagner will coordinate, with potential speakers to include:  Tracy Studsman from the Maine Highlands Guild, Bruce Hazard – Western Mountains Alliance, Sally Bates – Village Program marketing coordinator in downtown Bangor (?), Shawn Manter – NMDC Tourism Coordinator, and a representative from the Maine Office of Tourism. 

August Meeting:  Orman stated that he thought CD Appreciation Day would be held the third week in August, most likely on the 20^th.  The group discussed the previous idea of MCDA sponsored awards presentation at this event or perhaps the MMA Annual Convention in October.  Ideas for solicitation of awards included: 1) recognition of an outstanding MCDA member (possibly “lifetime achievement award); 2) Community Development Professional or organization outside of the organization; and 3) outstanding project.  Thoughts were discussed about naming the awards and spotlighting MCDA but general consensus was that we need more members present to make those decisions and would discuss the issue again at the next meeting.

September Meeting: The Maine Association of Planners (MAP) thought the idea of a joint workshop with MCDA was a good one and was interested in participating.  Orman stated a good topic would be Comprehensive Planning.  The Comprehensive Planning Manual is in the process of being updated by the State Planning Office (SPO), an effort driven by MAP.  He pointed out that the process is very confusing and that the last update was in 1992.  There is currently no way to measure how communities are following their Plan and the process needs to be more consistent and faster.  It would be appropriate to invite the SPO Director as keynote speaker.  SPO and MAP should have the process completed by the first of the year, at which time comments would be invited.  It was decided that the September meeting would be a reasonable time to present this workshop, along with firming up workshops for the MMA Convention, but for now the agenda would be left open. The exact date and location of this meeting is yet to be determined.

October Meeting:  This meeting will be held in conjunction with the MMA Annual convention and a variety of workshop/training ideas were discussed, including New Markets Tax Credits, Local Development Corporations, Innovative Housing, and State/Federal Program Funding.  It was noted that we should decide fairly soon what workshops would be offered in order to coordinate with the MMA program mailings.

6 & 7.       REVIEW OF ADVOCACY COMMITTEE WORK, ISSUES IN FRONT OF US/DEVELOPING A BUDGET:  Matt Eddy stated that it was difficult to discuss Agenda Items 6 & 7 without the presence of Ron Harriman and Chris Spruce and that we should defer the items until the next meeting.

8.                       OTHER BUSINESS:  Orman Whitcomb stated that the Office of Community Development had received 45 Public Facilities and Public Infrastructure grant applications (21 and 24 respectively) and had approximately $1.8 million for PF and $3.7 million for PI project funding.  He noted that some of the applications will not make it through the review process because of survey methodology issues and he suggested that the topic might be a good one for a workshop at the MMA Convention.  Orman also explained that he would like input from MCDA members on their grant application scoring system.  It was his feeling that the entire score should be based on measurable factors after meeting required criteria.  The process for the next CDBG round of funding will begin in May and he suggested polling MCDA members via survey to gather their input and then hold some type of brainstorming session sometime in April. Those in attendance expressed disappointment at the low turnout at today’s meeting but it was pointed out that good activities will help attendance numbers in the future.

The meeting adjourned at 12:40 p.m.

Submitted by,

Mary A. Walton

For Joella McBrearity

Secretary