CEO Dan Casey recently updated officials on EDA’s work
By Barb Pert Templeton
By a vote of 5 to 2 the Algonac City Council approved rejoining the Economic Development Alliance (EDA) of St. Clair County at a May 5 meeting. Mayor Pro Tem Dawn Davey and Councilman Michael Bembas voted against the renewal, which will cost the city $2,025 in membership fees annually.
Davey said she thinks the EDA has done a lot of things north of the city with manufacturing and development but can’t see signing up again after hearing what SEMCOG has to offer for $987.
Councilman Jake Skarbek disagreed and said the “more tools in the shed is our best route.”
“It’s just like Mr. Bryson (city manager Artie Bryson) said, it was a nail on the head, it’s like a gym membership the more you use it the stronger you’re going to get and if we have somebody in the administration that wants it, I believe we need to go that way,” Skarbek said.
Bembas said he felt the city would be better suited to put the $2,000 membership fee in an account to offer new businesses a temporary tax break. Skarbek said that amount of money is not going to make a difference or make or break a business’s decision.
Automating businesses has been a focus of the EDA over the last several years and then last year AI started to really hit corporate America so they began to embrace that aspect of things too.
“I remember in the past, I still have a bad taste in my mouth about it, we begged the EDA to come down here we need help with our school, we need help with our pool and they could not find the time to even come down here and meet with us,” Bembas said, noting that this year the membership is $2,000 but it’ll be $4,000 next year.
He also added that he thought the city would be better off using the funds for its own DDA.
“We hired a new administration for a different direction how are we going to say no to another tool in the shed that the new administration wants that could help them I think is irresponsible,” Skarbek said.
“I agree, I think the EDA is a good thing and I agree that we do have a different administration in place with different goals and mindset,” Councilwoman Wendy Meldrum said.
“And if it doesn’t produce for us, it’s a year, then we’ll dump them again,” Councilwoman Cathy Harris added.
Bembas said stating the city is going in a “new direction” is just using fancy words but they don’t mean a lot.
“With the EDA we are the red headed stepchild to them,” Bembas said. “They are going to go more on 26 Mile Road and Port Huron area, they are more of an industrial development thing, there’s no place for industrial development down here it’s just not going to happen.”
Mayor Rocky Gillis said the 14-point plan that Bryson presented when they hired him as the new city manager included rejoining the EDA.
“I can’t hold you accountable to a job if we don’t give you the right tools,” Gillis said, he then called for the vote and the majority approved the membership with the EDA.
Casey explains current EDA work
CEO Dan Casey, with the Economic Development Alliance (EDA) of St. Clair County, gave a presentation during the April 21 Algonac City Council meeting.
Casey told the board City Manager Artie Bryson invited him to address the council and while he noted that the city had dropped out of the EDA last year, he said perhaps they’d be interested in rejoining.
Algonac Councilman Michael Bembas voted against having the city rejoin the Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County.
Casey said for the most part the council knows what they do so he decided to focus his comments on what the EDA is doing today and what might have changed over the last few years.
“I think everybody knows that the county dropped their membership in the EDA, the board did and it was largely political, it was unfortunate, the board was asking the EDA to operate in a certain way that we couldn’t, not effectively anyway,” Casey said. “So, what happened, happened and we’ve continued to move on since then.”
He explained that Algonac was the only municipality who dropped their membership after the issue with the county board, so the rest of the communities have stayed strong despite not agreeing with the county board’s decision.
Financially, losing the county board did affect the EDA and there were some layoffs and some other adjustments, but they are moving forward and had a good year last year economically in the county, Casey said.
The EDA is about to begin its annual fundraising campaign which is intended to bring more private sector memberships into the organization and continue to drive forward progress.
One of the goals of the fundraising campaign is community development and the EDA is intending to create a new position that will specifically assist their community members with their goals and objectives.
“I think everybody knows that the county dropped their membership in the EDA, the board did, and it was largely political, it was unfortunate, the board was asking the EDA to operate in a certain way that we couldn’t, not effectively anyway.”
Dan Casey, CEO with the Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County
Casey said they are focusing their services on communities that are members, which is not to say no assistance would go to nonmember communities, but the former are priority at this time.
Automating businesses has been another project of the EDA over the last several years and then last year AI started to really hit corporate America, so Casey said they began to embrace that aspect of things.
“We decided to take a leadership role and try to introduce companies to how they could use AI,” Casey said. “Last year our two most popular programs that we did all year long were on AI.”
This year the EDA entered into a partnership with Michigan Manufacturing and Technology Center, and they are offering a series of training programs for manufactures and four of them are on AI and how to use it in manufacturing.
“I remember in the past, I still have a bad taste in my mouth about it, we begged the EDA to come down here, we need help with our school, we need help with our pool and they could not find the time to even come down here and meet with us.”
Algonac City Councilman Michael Bembas, who voted against rejoining the EDA
Another big initiative at the EDA is small business development and entrepreneurial programs. Casey said they received a $2.5 million grant from the state, it was federal money, to create a small business hub. The grant included the EDA assisting businesses in six counties, but Casey said 40% of the businesses that have utilized their programs are from St. Clair County.
Core programs through the EDA currently are business retention and expansion and that’s been challenging because of the state of the economy right now. Casey said many smaller companies have literally closed due to the high cost of tariffs.
Today, Casey said it seems Algonac is interested in getting grant support for different things including infrastructure. While the EDA is short staffed to actually write the grants they can assist with identifying potential grants for the city, he said.
“You tell us what you need help with and then we will assist you,” Casey said, in concluding his presentation to the council.
