Kewaunee County Board hears presentation on creation of economic development committee

KEWAUNEE COUNTY – During its Feb. 11 meeting, the Kewaunee County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation by Kewaunee County Economic Development Corporation Board Member August Neverman of Neverman Consulting regarding the creation of a county economic development committee.

“The main thing here is setting up an economic development committee that would include you and local government, focusing on future development.
”This is business development. You’ve probably heard that kind of stuff before, but this is focusing more on the government side of it — any sort of federal grants, any sort of ordinance changes, that kind of thing that government would have to do on behalf of or lobby on behalf of.

“That could be state level, could be federal level — goals, prepare for the future, work to retain businesses, the population, the public so we don’t keep evaporating, create an avenue for communications between the local towns, because Home Rule, they can do what they want, and that’s town, village, city and county could all participate. And I say could. It would not be a required thing. Only required ones would be the county board members, and then you would appoint other members. And each town, village, city would have the option to have a representative.

“Why? 80% of counties in the state of Wisconsin have an economic development committee; 96% have some sort of KCEDC-type thing — like an economic development corporation — and a bulk of them are 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6), but those entities can’t do ordinance, they can’t make changes in policy, that sort of thing.

“So, 80% have that other committee, so they’re kind of government side, private sector side. They do, in many cases work together, but they don’t have to be on the same they could be a completely unrelated activity too.

“So there could be something happening at the Economic Development Committee that KCEDC doesn’t care about, and vice versa. So, it’s not necessarily an overlap.

“The KCEDC wouldn’t change what it is doing. That is private development…they are going to fund things through the private sector elsewhere, but there are certain grants that only local government can apply to. Like the BEAD thing, KCEDC can’t do the resolution you supported last month.

“That’s the kind of stuff that this committee would do.”

No action was taken following the presentation.