Update: ARRA lighting retrofit project

A simple project designed and implemented by the City of Washington, in conjunction with the Energy Division of North Carolina Department of Commerce, has resulted in dramatic energy savings and will assist with job creation at a city-owned manufacturing facility occupied by Impressions Marketing Group, LLC.

In 2009, Impressions Marketing Group, which has leased the city-owned facility since 2001, entered into lease renewal negotiations with the city. As part of the negotiations, company executives encouraged the city to improve the building, which once housed a Hamilton Beach plant.

In 2010, after several months of negotiations, and with the help of a $259,979 grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Energy Efficiency in Government Buildings program, the group executed a five-year lease with an option for renewal. Mayor Archie Jennings said, “The grant award simultaneously targets the relationship between economic development and environmental sustainability, nourishes a unique public-private partnership and sustains an imperative local employer, key project goals.”

The lighting retrofit and heating improvement project combined to achieve an estimated $108,220 in energy savings across 1,400 light fixtures and 400,000 square feet of building. The International Energy Agency estimates that similar energy-efficiency initiatives in buildings, industrial processes and transportation could reduce the world’s energy needs by a third in 2050. There are more than 32,000 such manufacturing facilities in the United States alone.

The lighting improvements will generate an estimated energy-impact savings of 736-megawatt hours annually, enough to power 64 homes for one month. The gas-heating improvements will save an estimated 40,000 therms annually, enough to power 57 homes for a month. Impressions’ early energy-savings data, coupled with the slow-but-steady upswing in its business, will allow it to increase its employment base by an estimated 16.48 percent by 2012 (it is currently hiring).

These numbers, representing job creation and energy savings, are an example of community economic development, action taken locally by a municipality to provide economic opportunities to improve working conditions in a sustainable way. The City of Washington’s efficiency project demonstrates a healthy public-private partnership benefiting the community, the environment and the local economy, a triple bottom line benefit.

Impressions is a high-quality, store-fixture supplier. Locally, it produces premium fixtures and décor graphics for well-known retailers. It employs 136 people.

For more information about its current employment opportunities, contact 252-975-0444.

Small Business Entrepreneurial Assistance GRANT

Grant funding may be available to assist Washington business owners expand their businesses.

The Small Business and Entrepreneurial Assistance grant program, sponsored by Community Investment and Assistance Division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, is designed to assist local governments that are in the process of developing a coordinated effort to support and grow their communities’ existing small businesses. These grants are expected to help create and retain jobs within the state’s most economically distressed communities. The purposes of SBEA grants are to provide funding to local governments to jumpstart growth of existing businesses, create new jobs, retain existing jobs and to develop plans for creating an entrepreneurial environment in the community.

Each business must:

• be located in the City of Washington;
• employ a minimum of one person and less than 100 people;
• be operating for a minimum of two years. Program was design specifically for existing businesses;
• plan to expand by increasing the number full-time employees (defined as 1,600 hours) over the next two years;
• 70 percent of all jobs created must go toward creating or retaining jobs for low- to moderate-income persons;
• businesses previously located outside of the local government boundaries (another town, county, state and the like) are not eligible to participate.

The City of Washington, in an effort to support entrepreneurial activity, is identifying small businesses ready to hire additional full-time people but in need of funding to make this possible. The minimum grant award is $150,000. The maximum grant award is $250,000 (or $25,000 per job).

Examples of activities that may be eligible under this program include:

• infrastructure improvements (water, sewer, roads);
• purchase of land;
• construction of a building or other improvements;
• renovation of an existing building to accommodate the business;
• construction of tenant improvements/finishes;
• leasing space in or purchasing an existing building;
• purchasing capital equipment;
• providing job training that can be linked to specific jobs at a specific firm.

Examples of ineligible activities include:

• revolving loan funds;
• incubator projects for start-up businesses;
• job training that cannot be linked to a specific job at a specific firm.

In order to be eligible for funding, businesses must submit the following:

• business plan, two years minimum;
• project summary; intended use of funds and explanation;
• financial statements, covering the most recent two full years and projections for the next two years.

Company financial information cannot be held confidential or returned unless specific documentation is provided by the firm to support the “trade secret” status as defined in NC G.S. 66-152(2) and NC G.S. 132-1.2.

In addition, each business must:

• execute a legally binding commitment with the City of Washington/N.C. Department of Commerce guaranteeing job creation goals are met;
• execute a limited waiver of confidentiality for unemployment, tax and wage records (authorizes disclosure of certain information contained in the company’s quarterly unemployment insurance tax records filed with the North Carolina Division of Employment Security);
• execute a private company commitment form, guaranteeing that quarterly reports will be submitted and that the company agrees to either screen all applications and hires for the required employee statistical information and the required documentation or to allow DES to perform these functions on its behalf;
• after grant funds are awarded, companies will be required to perform an environmental review as part of the release of conditions process after the grant agreement and funding approval have been issued.

Businesses interested in learning more about the program should contact the City of Washington’s Planning and Development Department no later than March 5 at 252-975-9383 and speak with Bianca Shoneman or send email to bgentile@washingtonnc.gov.

Development finance: how to

We all know that everything cities and counties do is linked to the statutory authority afforded to them by the General Assembly. And like it or not, NC law says that it is OK to give grants and loans to spur private investment. Cities and Counties are granted this authority (in a very broad, by golly it’s almost unconceivable how much faith the statutes put in us) under G.S. 158-7.1 the Local Development Act.

Here’s the language:  “each county and city…is authorized to make appropriations for the purposes of aiding and encouraging the location of manufacturing enterprises….and locating industrial and commercial plants…or OTHER PURPOSES (what purposes dear lawmaker? Well, you decide what that means, Miss local government)  which, in the discretion of the governing body…will increase the population, taxable property, agricultural; industries, and business prospects of any city or county.”

That’s wide-ranging authority, for sure!

But hold your horses. The Constitution of the state- you know, that little document that governs the structure and function of state government. The highest legal document there is. The one that subjugates all other NC law. King of the mountain, if you would. So, while the statutes are broad and allow you to “other purpose” your development incentives, the constitution isn’t so blasé with tax dollars. It specifically states that the power of taxation can be exercised  for public purposes only. And that our local governments can contract with and appropriate money to any person, association, or corporation for the accomplishment of public purposes only”.

So what does this mean? We've got to follow both the constitution and statutes..but they say two different things...can't I just pick one. Tthe answer is NO!

The next few post will center on how a local government can incentivize economic development. And whats really getting me…the answer I really want to know…when can a local government offer cash incentives for economic development? Or can it?

Development finance: Industrial Revenue Bonds

Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB) Program The Department of Commerce's Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB) Program allows all NC cities, villages and towns to support industrial development through the sale of tax-exempt bonds. The proceeds from the bond sale are loaned to businesses to finance capital investment projects at, primarily, manufacturing facilities. Even though IRBs are municipal bonds, they are not general obligations of the municipality. The company or business that will use the facilities provides the interest and principal payments on the loan. The local government is in partnership with the business, lending its name, but not its credit, to the bond issue.

Security	Revenue from financed projects
Legal projects	Projects that generate revenues (GS 159-81) and Special Assessment projects (GS 153A, Art 9A; GS 160A, Art 10A )  (County landfill)
Feasible projects	Projects that generate sufficient revenue (hospital expansion)
Voter approval	NO
LGC approval	YES
Bond counsel	YES
Public or private sale	Usually public or USDA
Method of sale	Negotiated

Learn more about submitting an application here:

Sustainability: wind farming

The News and Observer is reporting that the public will have the opportunity to hear comments on a proposed 11,000 acre wind farm in Beaufort County. The N.C. Utilities Commission, which is reviewing the application for the 80-megawatt project, will hold its first public hearing at the Beaufort County Courthouse at 7 p.m. Nov. 17. If approved and built on schedule, the 49-turbine Pantego Wind Energy Project is expected to be completed late next year. It would probably be the state's first industrial-scale wind farm.

The nation’s largest independent owners of wind-generating facilities in the United States are behind the plan.
Although the energy generated by the wind farm is destined to be shared with 12 other states and the District of Columbia, Beaufort County could see up to $1 million a year, including property tax revenue, lease payments to landowners and salaries to local employees, from the project.

Pantego Wind Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Invenergy, earlier this month filed an application with the N.C. Utilities Commission for permission to build 49 492-foot-tall turbines on 11,000 acres near Terra Ceia and Pantego.


The commission will hold a second hearing Dec. 6 in Raleigh to consider evidence from accountants, engineers and other experts.


The Pantego project was proposed in September by Invenergy, a company that operates more than two dozen wind farms in this country. The Pantego proposal will also require approval from federal environmental regulators and from military installations. The project would have a capacity factor of 25 percent to 36 percent, which means it would generate that portion of its maximum energy capacity.


Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/10/12/1558876/coastal-wind-farm-up-for-discussion.html#ixzz1aZv8g0dk

Historic Preservation: vinyl vs wood windows

Why are wood windows better?

Tampa Preservation Inc created a great video which addresses, via lego-like droids, the assumption that vinyl windows are better than repairing original wood windows. Its a must watch!

Historic Preservation: Revisited

This video presents today's version of  historic preservation- how it goes beyond the velvet ropes and irate blue-haired ladies stereotype to deliver community-building results that are good for our heritage, planet and yes, people.  Rhonda Sincavage, National Trust for Historic Preservation, may just be my new hero!