With anywhere from $550,000 to $2.8 million hanging in the balance, an egg timer clicked along inside the New Castle-Henry County Public Library on Tuesday afternoon.
One by one, representatives from dozens of organizations gave pitches to a nine-member committee in charge of making recommendations for how the county should spend possibly more than $2 million in food and beverage tax revenue.
With about 30 presentations on the schedule, the committee gave each organization five minutes to make a case for why it should receive funding. And the egg timer made sure presenters stuck to the time limit.
"I didn't realize that five minutes was that short," Pete Bell, representative for the Connersville & New Castle Railroad, said as he approached the lectern.
The railroad requested about $118,000 in food and beverage tax money to replace a damaged bridge near New Lisbon. Bell said during his presentation that the new bridge would help companies in New Castle that use rail service.
If the railroad didn't get the money, the decision would "negatively impact" companies like Grede Foundries and Crown Equipment, Bell said.
Like the railroad, many of the organizations made arguments for how their projects would affect economic development and tourism here - the focuses of the food and beverage tax.
Bob Grewe, president and CEO of the New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corp., presented a request for funding to help develop a shell building in the county.
Grewe said companies want to locate in existing buildings and the shell building would give the EDC something to market.
"You can't sell from an empty wagon," Grewe said.
Another example was the presentation from the Henry County Historical Society, which was represented by Richard McKnight. The historical society is seeking funds to build an automotive display that will feature the society's Maxwell car.
That car was parked outside the library during the committee's meeting on Tuesday.
"Just about everybody's been touched by automobile history in Henry County," McKnight said.
The committee, which has already reviewed written applications from all of the organizations, asked questions of many of the presenters in the library. For example, committee members wanted to know whether the organizations would use county contractors and what the impact of not receiving funding would be on the organizations.
During a break on Tuesday, Dick Myers, chairman of the committee, said he wasn't sure what the next step in the food and beverage process would be.
But eventually, the committee will provide recommendations to the Henry County Council for how it should disburse the food and beverage money.
The food and beverage tax is a 1 percent tax on food and drink sales at eateries here.
According to county officials, the county is looking to spend about $2.8 million in food and beverage money - some of that money is in the fund now and some will be bonded.
Many county officials plan to spend about $2.2 million on a project to build a new Ivy Tech Community College campus on Ind. 3 near Walmart. That would leave about about $600,000 to be spent on other projects.
Gail Chesterfield, chancellor for Ivy Tech's East Central Region, said during her presentation, that the college campus would provide further training for students graduating from high school.
"Ivy Tech's mission is economic development," she said.
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