The organization that has led economic development efforts here for more than 30 years may shut down this fall because of a lack of funding.
“We have barely enough to finish out the fiscal year,” said John Porch, chairman of the Hickman County Economic and Community Development Association (HCECDA), which includes $5,500 for the standard annual audit of its 2023-24 financial records.
He said funds are insufficient to hire a successor to executive director Brenda Brock, and likely will only exist “for a couple more months” before dollars run out.
“We’ve never explored this situation,” said Porch, asked about the likelihood of a shutdown.
The association is the state-designated Joint Economic and Community Development board. State grant funding is available because it exists; for example, a $50,000 Three Star community grant is helping the county Planning Commission pay for the first portion of a $125,000 revision to the county’s land-use plan.
Over the years, HCECDA has aided county and town governments with the details of industrial recruitment, grant-writing, project coordination with state government and support for several local organizations, including the Imagination Library, the Hickman County Business Education Council and both the county and town industrial boards.
Brock was able to find successor organizations for all 20 programs in which HCECDA has been a key sponsor, handling applications and paperwork.
Porch said HCECDA’s secretary-treasurer, Rob Mitchell, will oversee efforts to keep the nonprofit agency compliant with various requirements.
Under a state formula based on population, most of the organization’s funding has come from the county government. The Legislative Body cut a large share of that in June, in preparation for the 2024-25 budget year, over displeasure with Brock; the cut represented her salary and she retired earlier than planned as a result. Commissioners then suspended the final $35,000 to HCECDA until it could meet with the Town of Centerville to discuss the organization.
That has not happened, even though the county, the town and HCECDA each has offered to host a joint meeting.
Most recently, the HCECDA Executive Committee met on August 15. Three of its five members agreed “not to take any action out of fear it will disrupt” any solution that might emerge, its chairman said.
Porch, Mitchell and Centerville Mayor Gary Jacobs attended. Absent were Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates and the association’s vice chair, Kelly Tyler, an officer at Accurate Energetic Systems.
Porch said HCECDA will continue to meet — its nine-member board must meet four times a year, and its executive committee also is required to meet four times, as required by the state.
He said state grant funding requires a cooperative economic arrangement between local governments — and a new organization could meet the requirement. But the local governments must agree to do so — that would require at least one meeting — and gather together at least quarterly.
“There are as many ways to do it as there are counties,” Porch said.
Until representatives of the two governments meet together and work out a plan, economic development projects will be handled as they were before HCECDA existed: By the mayors.
