Jasper County Economic Development, INC.
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, December 1st 2020 at 10:30am
*Via Zoom
Attending: Andy Johnson, Amber Volk, Diane Scott, Ben Bollman, Doug Weddell, Frank Dhom, Marlene
Harris, Mindy Hartke, Beth Probst, Jason Warfel, Sarah Kinkade, Louis Ochs, Brett Lessley, Larry
Brooks, Amber Wakefield, Ron Heltsley, Tom Brown.
1. Call to order, Vice Chairman Jason Warfel
2. Motion to approve previous November 2020 meeting minutes made by Doug Weddell,
second by Andy Johnson, motion passed.
3. Monthly Updates
a. Amber Volk, Executive Director
i. National Rural Economic Development Association Conference:
1. Spoke with Site Selectors.
2. More people are moving to small towns.
3. Senior facilities are making a very important positive impact on the
economy.
ii. Senior Living Complex doing a lot of dirt work.
iii. Sarah Busch Lincoln Clinic is putting up walls.
iv. First National Bank in Olney is making headway.
v. West End Reception & Events will have its first event this weekend:
Holiday Market from 9am-3pm Saturday 12/05/2020
b. Marlene Harris, City of Newton Alderman:
i. Holiday lights will be on during the weekends. The City is providing power and
electricity.
c. Ron Heltsley, Jasper County Board Chairman
i. County will be reorganizing December 1 st 7pm.
ii. Next County Board meeting is December 10 th .
iii. The jail project planning committee will be meeting December 2 nd .
d. Andy Johnson, Superintendent of Jasper County Unit #1.
i. A zoning meeting for the Sunrise Center will be Dec 8 th at 6pm in the High School
auditorium.
ii. The 300,000 working cash bond resolution that the board passed at the last
board meeting to help with repairs and maintenance work this upcoming year on
the HLS side of facilities.
iii. The Jasper County Board of Education voted to move forward with a
resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed $20,000,000.00 of debt
certificates of the District for the purpose of building and equipping additions to
and altering, repairing and equipping school buildings and facilities and
improving sites.
iv. As stated at the Board of Education meeting on November 16, 2020,
between retiring bonds and allocation of CFST (1% sales tax ) funds toward
abatement, this should lead to no tax increase as a direct result of the projects
these funds would cover. JCCU#1 received just shy of $500,000.00 of CFST
from the first full calendar year of collection. For that we are very grateful.
v. Building projects are being researched and more information will be
provided to the public in the coming months. We appreciate the support of all
Jasper County Residents as we strive to do what we can to repair and upgrade
facilities without raising property taxes for the projects.
vi. The quarantined student numbers to date for the school year range from 170
students to 29 students. We are very thankful to have been able to and continue to
offer in person learning throughout the district. The Jasper County Health
Department as well as our parents, students and staff are to commend for that
success to this point.
e. Sarah Kinkade, Chamber of Commerce Director
i. Shop Local Win Local/ Holiday 2020 $1,000 Chamber Bucks Giveaway this
December.
ii. We can no longer use “Holly Jolly” due to copywrite issues.
iii. December 18 th : Santa on the square, Food Truck, Embarras River Brass
Band, CEO selling products, Christmas Carol Cruise.
f. Amber Wakefield, Marketing Manager
i. Next news letter will go out Dec 1 st .
ii. We had 50 orders for the “Blame it on my Jasper County Roots” clothing.
75-80 pieces.
iii. Birthday and anniversary announcements are going well.
iv. People from Richland, Lawrence, and other counties are coming to see the
Christmas lights.
g. Tourism:
i. 300 vehicles drove through the Christmas lights on the first night. Receiving a
very positive response.
ii. Next meeting is Dec 3 rd @5:30pm at the Chamber.
4. Comments from those attending the meeting.
a. Jason Warfel: The CEO will have events starting Dec 5 th @ 5pm at the Drive-in
showing Christmas Movies.