Economic Development Commission


Meeting Minutes

Monday, April 29, 2013



Attendees:

Kathy Consoli, Charles Johnson, Derry Gorski, Fran Doba

Absent: William Verab, Tom Cavaliere





The meeting started at 7:07 in the Selectman’s Room. The purpose of the meeting was to document a plan for projects that the EDC could work on that would be viewed as beneficial to the small business community in Bethany.



Kathy presented a folder that is distributed by the county government in South Carolina that contained information about doing business in that county. She informed the group that she met with Tom to discuss a project for this commission.



She said that, as a small business owner, she was completely unaware of the town’s tax incentive when she was expanding Surreybrook. She suggested that any EDC plan we come up with to inform small businesses of the benefits of starting or expanding a business in Bethany, should be understood not only by the EDC members, but also by the various town offices (Land Use, Town Clerk, Assessor, etc.). By training the people who issue building permits or Trade Name forms, the information developed by EDC can be shared at the beginning of the process with the business owner.



The suggestion by our group was to develop a similar folder containing information about state and local tax incentives, benefits and assistance programs to help the business owners navigate through the bureaucracy and understand what programs might be available to him.



Fran distributed a list of departments that needed to be researched to see if there might be anything of value for small business in Bethany. The group divided up the list and agreed to investigate the possibilities. The team agreed to have the information ready to review at the next meeting.



Next Meeting: Monday, June 3, 2013 at 7:00pm in the Selectmen’s Room.



The meeting adjourned at 7:55PM.



Respectfully submitted,





Fran Doba