A financial crunch is coming for a group charged with economic development in Jay County.

And the executive director of Jay County Development Corp. wants his board of directors to begin talking about solutions sooner rather than later.

Bill Bradley, who has mentioned JCDC finances several times over the past year, told his board Tuesday, “we have about two years worth of reserves left and after that I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Bradley said that JCDC, which is largely financed by tax funds from Jay County, has spent about $40,000 more than it’s taken in the past several years.

The comments were part of a discussion of a column in Monday’s edition of The Commercial Review by economist Morton Marcus in which Marcus questioned the lack of commitment to economic development at the local level in Indiana.

Bradley cited a portion of the column that questions the wisdom of asking economic development officials to become fundraisers.

An awareness campaign that saw JCDC board members ask for feedback from local business and industry leaders was held in the latter part of 2009 and early in 2010. Plans for a follow-up fundraising campaign were not implemented.

Also Tuesday, Bradley reminded board members of ongoing activity and a possible shortage of marketable industrial space in the county.

With a lease of the former Gym City facility on West Tyson Road in Portland looming, a speculative industrial building in the Dunkirk Industrial Park will be the only viable property available, Bradley said.

Preliminary discussions regarding construction of a new shell building in Portland have been held, Bradley said.

Community Fiber Solutions, a provider of fiber optic data/Internet, plans to lease the Gym City building for a “hub” site. Details of a three-year lease/purchase agreement are being finalized, Bradley said.

Also pending are details of Fort Recovery Industries’ purchase of an industrial building in the Portland Industrial Park on county road 100 North, east of U.S. 27. The building was formerly leased by developers of the now-defunct XPLEX Extreme Competition Park.

The Fort Recovery Industries project, which was awarded $175,000 in city and county economic development income tax funds, is expected to bring at least 20 jobs by the end of this year.
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