The Isle of Wight Financial Improvement Authority borrowed $500,000 in the county in 2012 to buy land for the business enterprise park. The authority planned to pay back the loan as significant enterprises moved in and revenue grew. Just 1 small business has discovered a residence in the industrial region in the last year, and also the authority has made just 1 payment, of $125,000, given that 2012.
County spokesman Don Robertson mentioned the EDA believed it would "be capable to sell the house fairly rapidly and naturally points have turned about and they've not sold it as immediately as they thought."
In the event the authority does not make a payment by the end of the fiscal year 2017 - June 30, 2017 - the county will write it off as a contribution, Robertson mentioned.
Robertson and County Administrator Randy Keaton have stated the county didn't aspect repayment of your loan into the budget, while the loan originally came in the county's general fund.
Keaton mentioned the purpose of writing off the loan as a contribution is merely housekeeping, "to show it as a contribution, in lieu of a debt that is owed for the county - simply to clean the records up."
Calling the loan a contribution would not preclude the authority from making payments inside the future, he said. "It hasn't gone pretty as we'd hoped, but we're still generating progress on it," Keaton said.
Tom Elder, director of financial improvement, in regards to paying back the loan with revenue from new projects, mentioned, "Hopefully one particular of these projects will come forward."
The county not too long ago backtracked on a letter it sent to the town of Windsor last year that mentioned it would no longer need to have water from the town for the intermodal park.
Inside the letter, the county stated it would create its personal new water line along Route 460 to serve new companies within the park. That 460 water line was lately pushed back in favor of a extra urgent water line to service the Benns Church region.
Authority members remain hopeful that the business park will ultimately fill out.
On a current trip to Chicago, Elder met with business prospects for the park. That integrated a plastics enterprise whose representatives would go to the region within the following couple of months, Elder stated.
"It hasn't gone as promptly as we'd hoped," Keaton stated. "But definitely, we're nevertheless producing progress. And it does not preclude us from sooner or later collecting money."