Community Development 101

Legal Documents for County Economic Development Corporations

2010-04-06T11:38:00.001-07:00

Hi folks-

We are at the very early stages of considering forming a County Economic Development Corp but may have the opportunity to move the process along quickly if some funding comes through. If you have participated in the formation of an EDC and are willing to share your startup budget as well as any early incorporation documents I would greatly appreciate it! I've been asked to prepare a startup budget for a meeting on Wednesday so I have a short timeline. Thanks for your help.

Best- Laura Brown
************************************************************
Laura Brown
Community & Economic Development Educator
Crawford County UW Cooperative Extension
225 N. Beaumont Road, Suite 240 Prairie du Chien, WI 53821 608-326-0224 Fax: 608-326-0226
laura.brown@ces.uwex.edu www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/crawford

Places and Signage Request from Jim Resick

2010-01-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

Colleagues,

I am considering submitting a JCEP workshop proposal, tentatively entitled “A Lighter Look at Wisconsin Place Names & Signage”. Would you have some pictures of humorous (even semi-humorous) signage and maybe some take-off’s on your local place names to share with me? This project will not happen without your support. I will certainly list the names of contributors in the ‘credits’ slide.

In this time of human tragedy, global warming, tight budgets, high unemployment and other sorrows, I hope we can respond seriously to the world’s needs but still keep a sense of humor. Appropriate humor can help us keep a sense of balance in our lives, in my opinion.

Thanks, and have a good weekend.

Jim

James H. Resick
Community Development Educator
Outagamie County UW-Extension
3365 W. Brewster St.
Appleton, WI 54914
Phone: 920-832-5122Fax: 920-832-47

TDR request from Bill Rizzo

2009-12-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Colleagues:

A new Dane County group working on local food system issues is looking for educational materials for use in educating citizens and local government officials on the topic of transfer of development rights. I'd appreciate your forwarding to me examples of any such materials you may have or use, or pointing me toward same.

Thanks, in advance, for your help.

Best regards and Happy Holidays!

Bill

Dave Berard request: local examples of comp planning newsletters, fact sheets, or websites

2009-12-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

Colleagues,

Sorry for the broadcast e-mail, but I am looking for local examples of comp planning newsletters, fact sheets, or websites directed at responding to frequently asked questions. Examples might be:

Ø How is our comp planning related to our zoning ordinances?
Ø What does the consistency requirement mean?
Ø What if our town comp plan is different from our neighboring town or the county?
Ø How can the comp plan be changed after it is developed?
Ø Etc.

After attending the information sessions regarding Sawyer County’s comp plan this next month, I hope to compile the questions and put together an information piece. If you have an example would you please reply directly to me rather than the CNRED all list.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

David A. Berard
Sawyer County UWEX
10610 Main Street
Hayward, Wisconsin 54843
715-634-4830
715-638-3236 (direct line)
715-634-6820(fax)

County Fair Surveys

2009-08-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

I'm seeking examples of face-to-face interview surveys of county fair attendees. If you are aware of any county fair surveys of county fair goers in your county, I would very much appreciate you sending me a copy of the survey.

Thanks,

Tim Kane, Community Development Educator
Bayfield County UW-Extension Office
Courthouse, PO Box 218
Washburn, WI 54891
(715) 373-6104 ext 254
timothy.kane@ces.uwex.edu

Community Area Networks/Broadband

2009-07-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

As some of you aware, the federal government will be spending about $7.2 billion shortly to provide grants and loans to areas that are unserved or underserved by broadband. $3.75 billion in grants is currently available via the National Telecom & Information Agency. Many groups and individuals in Wisconsin are scurrying to meet the very short deadlines. One initiative titled "Go Gig" here in Wisconsin will be focusing on constructing the "middle mile" fiber in the first wave of funding. However, phase 2 grant proposals (later this year), and phase 3 (2010) will focus on the building of some pilot Community Area Networks (CAN). CAN's could best be described as coordinated regional communication infrastructure which promotes innovation, competition and economic viability. A community could be defined as a city, County, region, or some other geographic region.

I am interested in hearing from our County CNRED faculty and staff about your knowledge of local discussions regarding CAN's or simply the provision of broadband services. If you have been involved in these efforts, I would also like to learn more about how you have been involved. Some CAN discussions have already taken place in Platteville, Kenosha, Eau Claire, River Falls, Superior, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Wausau, Stevens Point, La Crosse, Madison, Janesville, Whitewater, and Milwaukee. Obviously, many of these communities would be viewed as being served by broadband, but one doesn't have to venture far outside of these cities to reach underserved areas. But, I am also interested in hearing about communities that are far more remote than these that have had serious discussion about how they might pool resources to create CAN's. These are the kind of communities that would be well positioned to be written in to these grants.

So here is your chance to inform me of your local initiatives. For more information on "Go Gig", see: http://wire.wiscnet.net/go-gig-broadband-stimulus-information/

Andy

Municipal Utility Service Rates (Karl Green)

2009-06-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Good Morning CNRED,

I received a request from a local City planner asking if there is any sort of data base that displays municipal utility services and payment amounts for activities such as stormwater, refuse & recycling, fire, transportation, streets, etc.

This community in particular will see a 14% decrease in shared revenue from the State, and is considering the idea of segregating some of its services as a utility/enterprise fund, as opposed to keeping it on the general ledger.

Any suggestions to illustrate what various municipalities have done would be most helpful. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Karl Green
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Resource Development
La Crosse County UW-Extension
400 4th Street North
La Crosse, WI 54601
Telephone: 608-785-9763
Fax: 608-789-4808

Riverfront Development & Intercept Surveys

2009-06-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

5/12
Hello,
Has anyone worked with a riverfront community on using their waterfront for tourism, business, and/or economic development? If so, I would be interested in talking with you. Particularly, I’m looking at smaller communities on smaller bodies of water.

Also, if you know of a community that has used an intercept survey for visitors to a big event (eg July 4th weekend/parade etc) to help with tourism development, let me know so I can follow up with you. I’ve found resources for surveys that look at expenditures of visitors, but this community is interested in looking at reasons/perceptions/distance traveled etc (in addition to expenditures). I’m looking specifically for example questions.

Andy Lewis – could you post this to your blog to facilitate and log responses? Anyone can go there once its posted with responses: http://ablewis.blogspot.com/.Thanks everyone!Catherine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Catherine Neiswender
Associate Professor
Community Development Educator

UW-Extension, Winnebago County
James P. Coughlin Center
625 E County Rd Y, Suite 600
Oshkosh, WI 54901-8131
Telephone: (920) 232-1972
Fax: (920) 424-1277
Email: catherine.neiswender@ces.uwex.edu
Website: http://winnebago.uwex.edu

All Nonprofits must file form 990: Post from Patrick Nehring

2009-06-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

This issue may have already come up because of UW-Extension’s association with 4-H and HCE Clubs, so you maybe aware of it.

But just to make sure you are aware, if a nonprofit organization does not file a 990, 990-EZ, 990-N form by at the latest May 15, 2010, they will lose their nonprofit designation from the IRS and need to reapply for nonprofit status. Attached is a press release that you can modify if you’re interested to let people know in you county.

In response to shady activities of a few nonprofit organizations, Congress in 2006/2007 changed the filing requirements for nonprofit organizations.

There is a new 990 and new 990-EZ form, but more significantly there is now a requirement that ALL nonprofit organizations must file a 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N report at the end of each fiscal year starting with fiscal year 2007. (For some organizations the 2007 fiscal year may end in a month other than January, so this applies whenever their fiscal year ends, which could be March or June for example.)

Previously, if a nonprofit organization had gross receipts less then $25,000, they did not need to file any paper work with the IRS. Now if an organization makes less than $25,000, the organization must electronically file a form 990-N. It is not a difficult form to fill out; basically it asks the organizations EIN number, current address, principle officer, and a yes/no statement saying your organization had less than $25,000 in gross receipts. The form is at Organizations with gross receipts more that $25,000 are required to file a 990EZ or 990 form.

Why should you care?
After May 15, 2010 (The deadline for fiscal year 2009 filing, assuming the fiscal year is January to December.), any nonprofit organization that has never filed a 990, 990EZ, or 990N form will lose their IRS designated nonprofit status. All nonprofit organizations must file a 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N form by the 15th day of the 5th month following the end of their fiscal year. This includes ALL nonprofit organizations, including 501(c)3 Charitable organizations; 501(c)5 labor organizations, like unions; 501(c)6 membership organizations, like Chambers of Commerce; and 501(c)7 social and recreation clubs, like a possibly a bowling league or quilt guild. The required filing is more likely to affect small local nonprofits, like the local snowmobile club or lakes association, because previously they were not required to file any forms with the IRS.

So what if an organization loses its nonprofit status with the IRS?
The organization will need to pay income tax on its profits at the end of the year. The profit is the money the revenue the organization has left after expenses. Failure to file a 990 form can amount to thousands of dollars in taxes and penalties, if the organization is caught. In addition, charitable contributions to the organization, particularly a 501(c)3 organization, will no longer be deductible from individual donor’s personal income taxes. Also, the organization is unlikely to receive a grant from a private foundation or government entity, who usually prefer 501(c)3 organizations. To reinstate its exempt status, an organization will need to go through the entire application process as if they were applying for the first time, including paying the application fee and filing out the 30 page application form for nonprofit status. There is also no guarantee that nonprofit status will be reinstated.

What is the IRS doing to let organizations know they need to file a 990 form?
The IRS may have sent out a letter or postcard informing nonprofits of the filing requirements. If they did send out a notice to all of the nonprofits it the country, they would have sent it to the address of chief officer or the person who originally filed the paperwork for nonprofit status, which may have been done ten, twenty, thirty, or more years ago. This especially is the case with the small local nonprofits that have not corresponded with the IRS since their nonprofit status was granted. I asked a few of the small local nonprofits in the county if they received any notice from the IRS and they had not. The IRS also has the notice of the filing requirement on their website. Of course, no one would know that unless they went looking for it. It is doubtful that the small local nonprofit that until now has not been required to file any paperwork with the IRS will just happen to go to the IRS’s website and read through the website to see that they are required to file a 990N. This process will help the IRS clear their books of defunct nonprofits. And, with the hundreds of thousands or millions of nonprofits in the US, maybe they unconsciously even want some of the smaller budget nonprofits to just go away, because they are so hard to keep track of. For example from a national perspective, the Friends of the Hancock Public Library with an annual budget of well under $25,0000 is fairly insignificant, but locally it is important to keep the local library.

Basically, the IRS is doing very little or nothing to let small local nonprofits know of the filing requirement.

Patrick Nehring, AICP
Community Agent
UW-Extension Waushara County
PO Box 487
209 S Ste Marie Street
Wautoma, WI 54982
(920) 787-0416
www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/waushara

Absentee downtown building owners

2009-05-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Has anyone run across any successful programs that engage absentee owners of downtown buildings in building improvements? Has anyone experienced a community that got people on board with a municipal design standards ordinance that could share some best practices that ease backlash to this type of proposal?

Andy Lewis – could you post this to your blog to facilitate and log responses? Anyone can go there once its posted with responses: http://ablewis.blogspot.com/.

Thanks everyone!
Amy

Amy R. Schanhofer
Community Resource Development Educator
UW-Extension, Monroe County

Phone: 608-269-8722/608-372-8722
TDD 800-947-3529
FAX 608-269-8767/608-372-8767

14345 CTH B, Room 1
Sparta, WI 54656

http://monroe.uwex.edu/cnred

Inventory skills/Interests from potential volunteers

2009-05-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Colleagues:

Does anyone have an example of a one page inventory skills sheet that can be completed by potential community volunteers? We are conducting a volunteer "job fair" type event and would like to help match potential volunteers with the opportunities that interest them the most. Thanks in advance for any information you provide.

Regards,

Art

Art Lersch Associate Professor CNRED Educator UW-Extension, Lincoln County Phone: 715-539-1072 Fax: 715-539-8323 Hearing impaired relay: 711

The State of the State

2009-02-10T09:17:00.000-08:00

Greetings,

Most of you know that I am not an economist. Most of you know that economists are people that didn’t have the personality to become CPA’s. U.W. faculty excluded.

While it’s frustrating trying to figure out which economist is right, I thought it might be insightful to share the thoughts of the Chief Economist for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Obviously, the projections from John Koskinen at D.O.R. will have an impact on the budget decisions that lie ahead. John was a presenter at last week’s Governor’s Conference on Economic Development. You can find his presentation on the WEDA web site at: http://www.weda.org/calendar/conferences/2009-gov-conf/ppt/koskinen-pfaff.ppt

As a non-economist, here is what I heard in the presentation:

-Decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), three to 5 months after the start of the recession is much worse than our previous two recessions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis is projecting slight growth in the GDP starting in the third quarter of 2009 (slide 11).

- The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Coincident Index (noted as FRB Phil coincident Index in the slides) combines four state-level indicators to summarize current economic conditions in a single statistic. The four state-level variables in each coincident index are nonfarm payroll employment, average hours worked in manufacturing, the unemployment rate, and wage and salary disbursements deflated by the consumer price index (U.S. city average). As you look at the maps on slides 5-10, you will see that Wisconsin has fared better than most of the Midwest states but the trend is certainly downward and rapid since June of 2008. If you look at the slides pertaining to Wisconsin (beginning slide 16), you will see that Wisconsin has been outperforming the other Great Lake States but not the national average.

-Retail sales and industrial production are in steep decline

- Wisconsin exports have been relatively strong.

- Home prices in Wisconsin have not appreciated as rapidly as the nation and will not likely decline as rapidly. Housing starts in Wisconsin are not projected to reach the 2005 levels until late 2011.

- Wisconsin housing starts have tanked, but the bottom is projected to occur in the third quarter of 2009.

-Despite all of the recent unemployment announcements, Wisconsin’s unemployment rates have been better then the nation. However our employment numbers in Wisconsin are back to 2000 levels (“the lost decade”). On the other hand, the other great lake states have employment levels lower than 2000-2001. Job losses in Wisconsin so far are not as bad as what we experienced in our last bad recession in the early 80’s. Janesville is the only metro area in Wisconsin with an employment rate above the national level (see slide 38). The Madison metro area has historically had some of the lowest unemployment rates during recessionary times and had an unemployment rate of 4.2% this month.

- When looking at employment numbers for December 2008 compared to December 2007, the only sectors to grow in employment at the state and national level were Education & Health and Government. In 2009, education is the only sector projected to grow in the U.S. while the hospitality industry in Wisconsin shows modest increases as well.

-Employment recovery is projected to be a little quicker in Wisconsin with a recovery beginning in mid 2010. Employment growth tends to follow economic growth as businesses are hesitant to add back employees and will likely be reliant on temporary staffing agencies in the interim.

-Wisconsin income is projected to outpace national income in 2010 as a result of a slightly quicker recovery in employment.

- Personal interest payments, and decreasing prices in consumer goods (gas!) has resulted in a rise in consumer spending power. However, as mentioned before retail sales are plummeting and savings are going up.

What's your take on these projections?

Instructions for posting to this blog

2009-01-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

If you are a University of Wisconsin Extension CNRED educator and would like to be added as an "author" to this blog, please just send a request to: andy.lewis@uwex.edu As an author you would have the ability to post and to comment without my approval. If you would like to simply respond anonymously, you can do that as well, but I have to reveiw these posts before they are visible. Here is the simple steps for posting anonymously. In the following example, you see a post by Bob Kazmierski on the topic of the "Stimulus Package". After clicking on the link titled "7 comments"....

When you are done entering your comments in the text box titled, "Leave your comment", just click on the anonymous box at the bottom of the post and then click on "publish your comment". If you include your name and contact infomormation in the comments, that would be helpful to others.

After clicking on "Publish your comment", you will receive a note saying, "comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author". In other words the comments will not be visible on the site until I approve them. It's that simple. And again, if you would like to be an author, just drop me an e-mail. You have to set up a google account to be an author (takes less then 5 minutes) but you can then post and comment without the approval process. If you request to be an author, you will receive an e-mail inviting you to join as an author and providing you instructions on how to set up a google account.

Stimulus Package

2009-01-22T10:56:00.000-08:00

Has anyone been asked to assist their county or local communities in compiling a list of ‘shovel ready’ projects for the new stimulus package? The bulk of the package – about 60% of $550 billion – is to be used to assist State and Local Governments in building new schools and highways, and invest in energy and health-care projects. The rest would provide tax relief for businesses and individuals.
Supposedly, these funds are not earmarked and are to fund projects that could start within 90-120 days.

Question: What do these requests look like? Are they simply a list of priority projects that have preliminary planning done? If so, do they need plans attached?
Alternatively, are they simply a one-page ‘wish list’?

Quality of Life

2009-01-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

Anyone involved in community and economic development in Wisconsin has surely experienced the surge of interest in "sustainable development". U.W. Extension has a team that focuses on this specific issue. For those that are interested in this specific topic, I would start with:
http://www.uwsuper.edu/cee/bed/ncced/current_projects.cfm

While the tools and processes for getting decision makers to think more strategically about sustainability have gotten a lot more sophisticated, Ron Shaffer, the founder of the Center for Community and Economic Development, had this to say about the difference between "economic development" and "economic growth"...
"How do we distinguish between the concepts of economic development and economic growth? Maybe an analogy will help: You are 12 years old, and you meet an uncle who has not seen you for 3 years. The uncle says, "My, but how you have grown." Now you are 28 years old, you meet an uncle whom you have not seen for 3 years, and he again says, "My how you've grown." in the second instance, you might take umbrage with this long-lost relative because the implication is that your waistline is increasing. As humans, we tend to stop growing sometime before the age of 20 but continue to develop our understanding, insights, and maturity. Growth and development are very similar; they tend to be related to time and the point from which we started."
Source: Community Economics: Linking Theory and Practice (second edition), Shaffer, Deller, Marcouiller

Said another way, I believe economic development is:
“The process of retaining, expanding, and attracting jobs, income and wealth in a manner that improves individual economic opportunities and the quality of human life.”

Here's a challenge. How many communities are taking the time to identify metrics for the measurement of quality of life? Have our communities even taken the time to identify what contributes to their "sense of place" within the community? Do our residents take for granted the amenities that might have value to prospective residents and businesses?

This last year I accepted the challenge of assisting the Thrive economic region with the task of identifying priority quality of life issues and metrics for measuring quality of life (on a contract basis with the CCED). That report is available on-line at:
http://www.thrivehere.org/articlemanager/rsrchqoflsurvey.aspx

That project, helped contribute to the compilation of data sources that might be useful to other communities interested in measuring and monitoring quality of life. See:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cced/communities/QualityofLifeDataIndicatorsDataSources.cfm

This is a "work in progress" and I would like to hear from you on potential additions to this list!

New Jails

2009-01-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Our county would like to know which others have built new courthouse and/or jails in the last 10-15 years.

If you have, could you please provide the following, if you know off-hand:

Approx. year built
Courthouse? Jail? Both?
# of beds in jail
# of courtrooms
sq ft
county contact for more info

Thanks so much!
Amy

Amy R. Schanhofer
Community Resource Development Educator
UW-Extension, Monroe County

Phone: 608-269-8722/608-372-8722
TDD 800-947-3529
FAX 608-269-8767/608-372-8767

14345 CTH B, Room 1
Sparta, WI 54656

http://monroe.uwex.edu/cnred

Purchase of Development Rights

2009-01-15T10:32:00.000-08:00

Jim Goldsmith (Juneau County UWEX) recently asked about information on the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR). I believe the Town of Dunn was the first municipality to start a PDR program in Wisconsin. More information is available at:
http://town.dunn.wi.us/PurchaseofDevelopmentRights.aspx

Bill Rizzo or Mindy Habecker (Dane County UWEX) might have some additional information. Brian Ohm in URPL would be another good contact.

The Gathering Waters Conservancy also has a list of Wisconsin Counties that have, or are thinking about starting a PDR program. See:
http://www.gatheringwaters.org/policy_pdr_local.php

First Post: Warning, this is just a test and has nothing to do with community development!

2009-01-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

One of these days I will actually post something related to community development, but for now....something completely different. My love for fishing. Does it get any better than Vermilion Bay Lodge on Eagle Lake?