General Meetings:

Nov. 1 Executive Committee meeting

Nov. 1 Rich O. met with BOCC re: billboard sign at I-76

Nov. 2 NECO members met with Ken Lund, new Exec. Director, Colorado OEDIT

Nov. 3 LCEDC monthly board meeting

Nov. 3 Dan Long and Rich O. met with dairy industry representative, Tom Haren

Nov. 4 Jim Neblett and Rich O. met with BOCC re: Star Clean Oil, LLC, notice

Nov. 7 LCEDC hosted Progressive 15 Logan County Caucus to discuss legislative issues

Nov. 7 Rich O. attended Logan County budget public meeting

Nov. 8 Rich O. met with Cheryl Scofield, USDA Rural Development

Nov. 8 CSU/DOLA committee held a final meeting on downtown beautification and
will be re-organized as the Advisory Committee to City Council

Nov. 9 LCEDC Strategic Planning Committee met to update plan dated October, 2010

Nov. 10 Joint Committee SURA/LCEDC held its monthly meeting

Nov. 11 Rich O. met with Larry Mohnsen, manager of Bomgaars, for soft opening.

Nov. 12 Rich O. and other board members attended the Fall Gala of Logan County
Chamber of Commerce

Nov. 14 Rich O. met with dairy prospect land owners

Nov. 14 Rich O. met with Scott Stump’s Labor Day golf tournament committee

Nov. 16 Target Industry Committee had regular meeting

Nov. 16 Rich O. attended the NECALG board meeting and presented economic updates

Nov. 17 NECO held its monthly meeting in Akron

Nov. 17 EDD Advisory Committee met in Akron

Nov. 18 Targeted Industry Oil and Gas breakfast at Plainsman Grill

Nov. 18 Rich O. met with downtown property owner on a confidential project

Nov. 22 Rich O. met with Scott Stump, Jason Haslett, and Stanton Gartin at NJC re:
possible training programs for local welder/fabricators.

Nov. 28 Rich O. and Kim Sellers met at the request of George Hunt with Debbie Zwirn,
Tom Bedford, and two representatives of State Parks: Heather Dugan and Dave
Piper re: improvements to North Sterling State Park and concessionaire contract

Nov. 29 Executive Committee met for pre-board meeting.

Nov. 29 Rob Nichols, Rocky Joy and Rich O. met with Joe Kiolbasa, Curt Penny at City
Re: CDOT work and IGA for traffic engineering downtown and “S” curve.

Nov. 29 Rich O. held conference call with Star Clean Oil attorney re: Logan County
Industrial Park.

Economic developments:

Project Green/New Industrial Park- UPDATE 11/1: Star Clean Oil, LLC, sent their Commencement Notice to Logan County Board of Commissioners to advise they are moving ahead with their rail development plans. There are planning to begin construction early in 2012. UPDATE 12/1: The ballot questions authorizing PID bond financing was approved at the Nov. 1st election. On Nov. 29, LCEDC and Logan County representatives participated in a teleconference call with SCO investor/partners and financing advisors.

State Prospect EP 11-0627- Blue Sky- LCEDC submitted our proposal on July 1 for this manufacturer of wind turbines. UPDATE 10/1: The State OEDIT has notified us that proposals from six Colorado counties have been reviewed by the prospect, but no further action has been taken. UPDATE 11/1: No progress to report. UPDATE 12/1: No progress to report.

State Prospect #11-831 Manufacturer of tree/brush cutting equipment- LCEDC submitted our proposal on Sept. 21. UPDATE 11/1: No progress to report. UPDATE 12/1: No progress to report.

Sterling Municipal Airport/ Crosson Field-. UPDATE 3/1: Joe Kiolbasa, Larry Fetzer and Rich O’Connell met with an airport operations consultant to discuss future development at the airport. UPDATE 11/1: Further discussions with operations consultants have been postponed until after new City Council members are seated.

Three Prototype Buildings- UPDATE 10/1: We have submitted our prototype buildings to the two State Prospects listed above. UPDATE 12/1: We are in discussions with Bruce Glass, Architects Group, to update contractor bids in 2012.

East Cheyenne Underground Gas Storage- UPDATE 6/1: Merchant Energy Partners, LLC, held their ground-breaking ceremony at the Peetz site on May 23rd. Governor Hickenlooper attended and also visited the NextEra Energy wind farm developments. UPDATE 10/1: The construction phase is rapidly moving ahead with Manzek Construction on site and delivery of the large compressor installation. At final build-out, this will be a $300 million project with up to 20 full-time jobs. There are 100 construction workers on site and that work is expected to run 2011 through 2012.

Colorado Highlands Wind, LLC, project north of Fleming continues as a viable project and the developers continue to seek a power purchase agreement (PPA) with various electric utilities. UPDATE 8/1: Colorado Highland’s managing partners have re-submitted their project to a utility located outside the State. UPDATE 12/1: No progress to report.

The following summary provides a highlight of the various monthly activities for the Logan County Economic Development Corporation (“LCEDC”). All activities are not described in the summary, but rather some of the more visual activities of the LCEDC are presented.

General Meetings:

Oct. 4 Executive Committee meeting

Oct. 4 Rich presented the LCEDC annual budget request at City Council

Oct. 5 Joint Committee representatives met with Randy Finley re: Woolworth Bldg.

Oct. 5 Rich attended State CCC ceremony at Plainsman Grill

Oct. 6 LCEDC held its regular monthly meeting

Oct. 11 SURA held its regular bi-monthly meeting

Oct. 13 I spoke on the CrossTalk radio program

Oct. 13 LCEDC board members met to kick-off our membership drive

Oct. 14 Rich attended physician recruitment breakfast at Sterling Regional MedCenter

Oct. 14 LCEDC hosted Business After Hours (BAH) at our office

Oct. 15 Rich attended NJC ceremony honoring scholarship donations

Oct. 16 Rich, Rocky and Scott Stump presented at Rocky Mtn Farmers Union seminar

Oct. 18 Rich and Brad met with two prospects at the office

Oct. 18 Rich presented at Sterling Women’s Connection dinner at Plainsman Grill

Oct. 24 Rich attended Colorado Community College seminar in Denver

Oct. 24 Rich participated in Progressive 15 conference call board meeting

Oct. 26 Rich attended SIFE update meeting as member of Advisory Board

Oct. 27 Rich, Loretta and Scott Stump attended NECO meetings in Sedgwick, CO.

Oct. 28 Rich, Kim Sellers and Laurie Jones attended CSU Regional Engagement Center
planning session at Sterling facility.

Economic Developments:

Project Green/New Industrial Park- UPDATE 11/1: Star Clean Oil, LLC, sent their Commencement Notice to Logan County Board of Commissioners to advise they are moving ahead with their rail development plans. There are planning to begin construction early in 2012.

State Prospect EP 11-0627- Blue Sky- LCEDC submitted our proposal on July 1 for this manufacturer of wind turbines. UPDATE 10/1: The State OEDIT has notified us that proposals from six Colorado counties have been reviewed by the prospect, but no further action has been taken. UPDATE 11/1: No progress to report.

State Prospect #11-831 Manufacturer of tree/brush cutting equipment- LCEDC submitted our proposal on Sept. 21. UPDATE 11/1: No progress to report.

Sterling Municipal Airport/ Crosson Field-. UPDATE 3/1: Joe Kiolbasa, Larry Fetzer and Rich O’Connell met with an airport operations consultant to discuss future development at the airport. UPDATE 11/1: Further discussions with operations consultants have been postponed until after new City Council members are seated.

Three Prototype Buildings- UPDATE 10/1: We have submitted our prototype buildings to the two State Prospects listed above.

East Cheyenne Underground Gas Storage- UPDATE 6/1: Merchant Energy Partners, LLC, held their ground-breaking ceremony at the Peetz site on May 23rd. Governor Hickenlooper attended and also visited the NextEra Energy wind farm developments. UPDATE 10/1: The construction phase is rapidly moving ahead with Manzek Construction on site and delivery of the large compressor installation. At final build-out, this will be a $300 million project with up to 20 full-time jobs. There are 100 construction workers on site and that work is expected to run 2011 through 2012.

Colorado Highlands Wind, LLC, project north of Fleming continues as a viable project and the developers continue to seek a power purchase agreement (PPA) with various electric utilities. UPDATE 8/1: Colorado Highland’s managing partners have re-submitted their project to a utility located outside the State. UPDATE 11/1: No progress to report.

The tax, which will be paid on the short-term leasing, rental or furnishingn of any specified lodging services in the City of Sterling, will be utilized for the purpose of raising funds to promote tourism, conventions and community beautification within the City of Sterling. Collected taxes will be held in a fund separate from the city’s general fund, and recommendations regarding use of the hotel taxe revenues will be made to the City Council by an advisory board appointed by the Council.

Thirty eight percent (38%) of the tax will be remitted to Logan County for the continuation of the County’s efforts to advertise and market local tourism, including the operation and maintenance of the Tourism Center.

The passage of Referendum 2X potentially provides additional support for the vision(s) generated by two state-assisted projects in 2010: the Community Economic Development (CED) Assessment and the CSU/DOLA Rural Technical Assistance Program. Progress toward achievement of the vision generated by these projects continues through the work of two committees within the community.

“As partners in this initiative, we wanted to give you a direct link to review Version 1.0 of the Colorado Blueprint, released earlier this week.

You can find the document at www.colorado.gov/coloradoblueprint

The Colorado Blueprint v1.0 is the next step in taking the “bottom-up” economic development planning initiative into the business plan for Colorado. It also further develops our foundation to continue working together, based on your inputs and ideas. We are grateful for your participation and guidance in this process.”

The Logan County Economic Development Corporation is calling on its members for help in completing a summary of economic activity in the county.

Logan County is in a state-defined enterprise zone, which provides incentives to companies who contribute to the economic development of the county. Because of that, LCEDC must prepare an annual report that includes a summary of economic activity, particularly job creation and capital investment related to business start-up and business expansion.

Information about specific businesses is kept confidential. The report is simply a summary of total new businesses, jobs created and capital invested.

LCEDC is looking for Logan County businesses to let them know if they created any jobs or invested capital in expansion in 2011, or tell them of any businesses that may have done so.

Information may be sent to Executive Director Rich O’Connell at director@sterling-logan.com, or Assistant Brad Barton at assistant@sterling-logan.com, or by phone, (970) 521-7196.

The Logan County Chamber of Commerce is happy to announce that in conjunction with Logan County Economic Developmen, the Buxton Study is now available for use by Chamber Members. For a fee of $25 Chamber Members can receive specialized reports to help your specific business.

(Contributed by the Logan County Chamber of Commerce.)

Who is the most important person in practically any business enterprise?

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Why have companies ignored the customer? Until recently, it was difficult to obtain extremely detailed information about customers – and even more difficult to interpret the data in a useful and profitable way.

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This is the promise of customer analytics, pioneered by Buxton of Fort Worth, Texas.

 For more information please feel free to contact us or visit www.buxtonco.com

The following summary provides a highlight of the various monthly activities for the Logan County Economic Development Corporation (“LCEDC”).  All activities are not described in the summary, but rather some of the more visual activities of the LCEDC are presented.

General Meetings:

June 1- Brad Barton presented the Rotary program on SBDC.

June 2- Dan Long and Rich O’Connell met with healthcare researcher Vincent Atchity from Denver Anschutz Center on rural provider issues.

June 3- I attended ribbon-cutting at Gary Castle’s new business, Fro-gurt in Day-Lite Donuts.

June 6- I was invited to luncheon meeting of Logan County Lodging Tax Board to  answer questions concerning the proposed 5% hotel tax in Sterling.

June 7- CSU/DOLA Committee held its regular meeting.

June 9- LCEDC board members attended farewell reception for Lance and Lorrie Bolton.

June 13- I represented LCEDC on KPMX radio to speak in support of hotel tax proposal.

June 14- SURA held its regular bi-monthly meeting.

June 14- I attended City Council meeting to speak in support of hotel tax proposal.

June 15- Jim Horner and Rich O’Connell presented the Rotary program on SURA.

June 16- CED Community Assessment committee held its regular meeting.

June 21- I attended the Logan County Master Plan update review and requested that the Planning Commission consider placing retirement community development and Neighborhood Revitalization on the revised Master Plan document.

June 22- Jim Neblett and Rich O’Connell toured the BNSF Intermodal rail facility in Denver and met with John Karl, the new Regional Economic Development Manager for BNSF.

June 22- Jim Neblett and Rich O’Connell met with Jim Michael, Managing Member of  Star Clean Oil, LLC, at their Littleton offices.

June 23- I attended the monthly NECO meeting in Akron.

June 23- Brad Barton and Rich O’Connell met with Gail LaForce and Scott Stump,  Interim NJC President, concerning a USDA Rural Development grant.

June 24- Brad Barton, Jim Neblett and Rich O’Connell met with Colorado OEDIT executives at the Denver offices concerning economic development prospects.

June 27- I attended the monthly Logan County Chamber of Commerce board meeting.

June 28- Brad Barton, Jim Neblett and Rich O’Connell met with Pat Tierney concerning his proposed re-cycling business model he’s presented in Morgan County.

June 29- The Target Industry Committee held its regular meeting.

June 30- I attended the Colorado OEDIT second meeting on process improvement at  Arvada Center in Denver.

Economic developments: 

Project Green/New Industrial Park- UPDATE 6/1: We have been responding to due diligence requirements for Star Clean Oil, LLC, in connection with their financing commitments. Jim Michael, Managing Partner, stated that the final budget has been submitted on their private equity financing package and they are planning to break ground in 2011.  They have selected a general contractor and any construction inquiries can be made to Rich O’Connell. UPDATE 7/1: Since June 2, SCO’s merchant banking partner has been presenting their approved project to private equity financing companies in New York and Los Angeles.  Jim Michael reports that these presentations are going well and they expect financing commitments to be in place within 90 days.  Plans are underway to bring SCO’s foreign investors to Sterling for a ground-breaking ceremony in September.

Project Rebar- UPDATE 4/1: Jim Neblett and I were able to reach Rebar’s plant manager in Brazil. Sterling is their #1 site and they have submitted a rail site plan to both BNSF and UPRR.  BNSF has approved and Rebar’s CEO is working with UP to finalize the switch and track layout. UPDATE 7/1: Rebar’s CEO informed Rich O’Connell on June 9^th that they were unable to work out their co-operating and track lay-out agreements with BNSF and UPRR.  They have tentatively decided to re-locate their Denver plant to the Swan Ranch industrial development southwest of Cheyenne, WY.  We have urged Colo OEDIT, and hopefully Gov. Hickenlooper, to make another effort to retain this company in Colorado at their preferred Sterling site.

Project Scorpion- UPDATE 7/1: On June 24, we met with Colo OEDIT executives to encourage them to re-approach Project Scorpion to discover if their plans at Swan Ranch are moving ahead and to learn if Colorado might still be involved.               

Sterling Municipal Airport/ Crosson Field- The airport received FAA permission to re-open on Dec. 8. UPDATE 3/1: Joe Kiolbasa, Larry Fetzer and Rich O’Connell met with an airport operations consultant to discuss future development at the airport.  UPDATE 7/1: Evaluation of airport consultants continues.

Three Prototype Buildings- UPDATE 7/1: We have submitted our prototype buildings to several new prospect proposals.

East Cheyenne Underground Gas Storage- UPDATE 6/1: Merchant Energy Partners, LLC, held their ground-breaking ceremony at the Peetz site on May 23^rd.  Governor Hickenlooper attended and also visited the NextEra Energy wind farm developments.  UPDATE 7/1: This project is moving ahead as planned.

Colorado Highlands Wind, LLC, project north of Fleming continues as a viable project and the developers continue to seek a power purchase agreement (PPA) with various electric utilities.  UPDATE 4/4; Their recent RFP to Xcel was not selected. UPDATE 6/1: Colorado Highland’s managing partners have re-submitted their project to a utility located outside the State.  If their PPA proposal is selected, this would be the first Colorado wind energy that is marketed outside the state. UPDATE 7/1: Managing partners expect to know by July 31 if their PPA proposal has been accepted.

STERLING — Several options for a “Welcome to Sterling” monument at the city`s entrance point near the Sterling Information Center were presented Wednesday at a joint Logan County Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club meeting, followed by a public meeting.

Before the monument options were presented city councilman Rocky Joy talked about the CSU/DOLA project that the monument is part of. The project is a joint effort involving the city of Sterling, Sterling Urban Renewal Authority, the Chamber and Logan County Economic Development Corporation.

A team of specialists from CSU analyzed what could be done to help beautify the community, create more tourism and growth. One thing they identified that stuck out was the need for beautification along the corridors coming into the city.
A steering committee was developed to try to accomplish some of the goals and objectives that were outlined in the CSU/DOLA project, including the monument sign.

“They`ve looked at beautification of the corridors coming in, they`ve looked at bridge treatments,” Joy said. “They`ve looked at the importance of the S-curve to solve the traffic issues that are coming into Sterling, as well as the conversion of the one-ways back to two-ways to make more of a flow and easier access to the downtown area.”

“They`ve also looked at the downtown itself, realizing that the downtown is the heart of the community and without a strong downtown, people may think that Sterling is failing or not moving forward. With that in mind they`ve looked at the beautification of intersections with sod improvements and plazas within the downtown area for gathering points.”

Because of the scope of the project and the amount of work that`s needed they`ve decided to do it in phases.

“We`re looking at different parts of the project that we can take on right now, maybe through community donations, community involvement, local labor whether it be the Department of Corrections or foundation grants from Home Depot for landscaping materials,” Joy said.

One of those parts is the monument sign. The city has contracted with SEH, Inc., to do the engineering design work for the monument sign.

“This monument sign will set a theme for the rest of Sterling coming in,” Joy said. “We want to give that impression of the beautification and the monument and then have a similar theme throughout, whether its bridge treatments and little monuments at the end of the bridge, the plaza downtown, we`re going try to incorporate some of their ideas into those projects.”

Ann Pagano, from SEH Inc., and Patricia Miers, of PKM Design Group, Inc., presented information on the monument options. Miers is doing the actual sign design and SEH Inc., is doing the civil engineering, like the grading, drainage and other utility issues.

It will be narrowed down to two choices, and then a final design will be done once they find out which one the community prefers.

The first option is a contemporary design, with an arch shape to it, using stone similar to what`s at the Visitors Center. It features curved metal roof lines, a low planter with flowers skirting the sign wall and ornamental trees to extend the sign form.

All three options include traditional shrubs/grasses adjacent to native areas.

The second option is a variation of the first theme.

“It`s a little bit more classic with perhaps a clock or some other kind of logo up at the top,” Myers said. “This one would feature columns on either side and it`s a little bit more symmetrical, with terrace walls on either side.”

It still includes materials that reflect the Visitor`s Center style, along with double-tiered planters and evergreens to provide background screening.

“One of the things that we were looking at doing was to try to screen out some of the buildings and some of the things that were just behind it so that people would be focusing in on the sign and not so much on the background,” Miers said.

The second option is about 20 feet tall, while the first is about 15 feet.

The third design features a stone monument, stone landscape walls with boulder accents and undulating grades around the base to create interest, and variety of ornamental/native grasses are highlighted.

“I took a spin on it and extended out some terraces, where you could actually put some sculpture in there,” Miers said. “That could be something that could be phased in later, you could have landscape in there initially, so it would still look nice, but as maybe funding came through or if you got funding donated, you could have an area where you could do something.”

Sculptures could be incorporated into any of the designs.

Miers also showed a sign that would be off the end of the bridge, with a taller column on the left side and fairly large concrete arched style sign.

Plus, she showed a much taller monument she did with Centerra and the city of Loveland.

There was a question about doing something to correspond on both sides of the road.

“Certainly that`s something that could be phased in,” Miers said. “You could do the main sign now and then as funding became available or if property became available, maybe you could set aside something on the other side that would be complimentary.”

There was also a question about having identical or similar monuments on highways 14 and 6.

“We want to focus on all the corridors coming in but this is the most traveled and visible corridor, so we`re starting with this one, but the other two corridors coming into town we would like to do something similar,” Joy said.

Callie Jones: (970) 526-9286; cjones@journal-advocate.com

On July 20, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper introduced the “Colorado Blueprint:  A bottom-up approach to economic development.”  The Blueprint is the result of input from more than 13,000 people, including input from citizens of every one of Colorado’s 64 counties.  Each county provided a plan to its respective region, and each of the 14 regions compiled input from its counties to create a regional plan and provided the plan to the state, which then compiled input from the regions to create the state Blueprint.

The Blueprint provides 6 areas of focus to promote economic development in Colorado:

1. Create a Business Friendly Environment
2. Recruit, Grow and Retain Business
3. Increase Access to Capital
4. Create and Market a Stronger Colorado Brand
5. Educate and Train the Workforce of the Future
6. Cultivate Innovation and Technology

The complete “Colorado Blueprint: A bottom-up approach to economic development” can be reviewed at www.colorado.gov/coloradoblueprint. There is also a public comment survey link online for people throughout the state to offer feedback on the work plan.

The Region 1 plan can be reviewed here.

The Logan County plan can be reviewed here.

Financial checkup shows other indicators promising

By Callie Jones Journal-Advocate staff writer