RIFA – LIVE! (9/14/15)

SouthsideCentral was LIVE! at the Danville Regional Airport for Monday’s Regional Industrial Facilities Authority meeting. This article is now complete, so enjoy the recap and photos.

PREVIEW:

Here’s what will happen today…

1. The public comment section. Nobody will speak, because nobody will attend the meeting except for board members, staff and media.
2. $32K will be allocated for sampling needed in the ongoing project to widen Berry Hill Rd.
3. Elkay (the former Yorktowne Cabinetry) is going to run out of time for their incentive agreement to hire 320 jobs. The company has created 202 fulltime jobs. Technically, Elkay will be in default of the original agreement and would be liable to repay the full amount of $208,363.26, but they’ve worked out an agreement to repay a prorated amount of $76,834.52 instead. This makes sense because the company is successful and 202 jobs isn’t bad. Linwood Wright will explain this to the board and it will pass 4-0.
4. $438,000 will be officially appropriated to pay Dewberry for engineering service for more MegaPark work. That’s for “(i) Phase 1 pad grading construction plans and specifications at a lump sum fee of $178,000; (ii) construction administration services at a lump sum fee of $85,000; and (iii) construction testing and inspection services at a budget estimate of $175,000, at a total project estimate of $438,000” according to the documentation.
5. The board will reschedule the October meeting from the 12th to the 13th. I’ve got no idea why, but I’ll find that out.
6. The financial statement will be presented by Mike Adkins and will be approved 4-0.

And that will be it. No closed session is on the schedule. If anything changes, we’ll have it in our LIVE! coverage… and that will start around 11:50 AM.

What actually happened:

Hey, we were close. Let’s do the recap item-by-item.

1. Nobody from the general public was there, so nobody spoke in the public comment section. We nailed this one.
2. Since the resolution for the $32K was passed at the last meeting, this was just an overview of the resolution after fixing a few clauses.
3. Elkay’s done a great job in keeping over 200 employees working fulltime and it’s common business sense to let them do a prorated payback for the job target incentive miss. The R&B’s Denice Thibodeau covered this story in the same way, but somebody put a crappy headline on the article that spotlighted the failure instead of recognizing the good parts of this deal. Elkay plant manager Bert Eades “Gets It”. I really like his style.
4. This one caught me by surprise. The board tabled Dewberry’s request for the $438,000 because the permitting for the proposed grading site hasn’t came through yet. It’s usually “What Dewberry asks for, Dewberry gets”. The guys from Dewberry reminded the board that the Tobacco Commission grant money for the site grading runs out of time at the end of 2016, but the board was quite confident that the commission would grant an extension if it’s needed (and they will do that).
5. October 12th is Columbus Day, and that’s observed by Pittsylvania County. The board also postpones the November meeting by one week because there’s a Virginia Association of Counties meeting on the regularly scheduled day.
6. We heart Michael Adkins.

That’s it. We’re finished here and we’ll wrap it up with lots of photos of pretty much the same thing over and over, but from different angles. Photos are free. Enjoy them.

Everyone is here today, and they appear to be deep in thought.

Telly Tucker has that “Not Bad” look.

Dewberry’s Brian Bradner & Shawn Harden are here today.

Otis Hawker is sitting in the corner by his choice.

Sue DeMasi makes a run for the door, but only to get the envelope of checks that need to be signed.

Elkay’s plant manager Bert Eades tells the RIFA board that the company is doing well.

Although it may look that way, everybody isn’t looking at Telly Tucker’s delicious sandwich.

We’re not sure what Brenda Bowman was wearing today, but it stood out.

Telly Tucker needs to stop talking and eat his sandwich.

Here’s the view down the table.

Brian and Shawn will have to wait until at least the next meeting to get the Dewberry contract paid.

Thanks for reading the most detailed report of today’s meeting, folks. We’ve got more coming up on SouthsideCentral!