Council hears enterprise zone request
and is challenged on business practices

[SEPT. 15, 2004]  The podium was hot in the city council chambers at the Tuesday evening workshop. Several speakers addressed the council on various issues.

The council was educated on a proposal that would enable the Lincoln-Logan Enterprise Zone to be extended to Elkhart and facilitate the building of a coal-fired power plant as well as aid the Formosa plastics plant in rebuilding and expansion.

Members of the Logan County Regional Planning Commission stamped the measure with their full approval on Sept. 1.

A private business consultant, Steven McClure, is coordinating the plan on behalf of Formosa. McClure explained the details and benefits of a plan that packages four new enterprise zone sites and adds two new government entities to the Lincoln-Logan Enterprise Zone.

Extending the Lincoln-Logan Enterprise Zone to the site of the Formosa plant adds Sangamon County as an additional government entity.

The 3-foot-wide corridor that would run to Formosa would pass through Elkhart to include the site chosen by CornBelt Energy to build a power plant. The Elkhart extension request was turned down a couple of years ago by the state due to the area not meeting enterprise zone unemployment rates.

Two other Lincoln tracts are also incorporated in the proposed enterprise zone package: the former property at Al's Main Event and a section of farm acreage located near Eaton.

Combining the Elkhart site with the Formosa plant and the two other tracts in Lincoln should get the proposal passed by the state this time, as the combined unemployment of that four-property tract exceeds the needed 120 percent unemployment rate. 

Increasing the number of government entities to four, with Lincoln and Logan County currently in the zone and adding Elkhart and Sangamon County, also benefits the local area by increasing the allotted enterprise zone territory.

More details of the plan can be seen in the recent article "Plan that helps Formosa plant rebuild may also bring energy plant."

Council challenged to do business locally

A local businessman also addressed the council on the importance of favoring local business in purchases. Bob Graue of Graue Inc. urged council members to consider the importance of doing business locally.

The council made a decision last week to purchase a Ford Explorer from a McLean County dealership. The bid specs that were solicited were for a 2004 utility vehicle but Dennison made a significant offer on a 2005 model by sealed bid, and that was accepted.

Two bids were opened on Aug. 27:

• A bid of $21,822.30 on a 2005 Explorer XLS was received from Dennison Ford, Bloomington.

• A bid of $21,614.35 on a 2004 Blazer was received from Graue Inc. of Lincoln.

Alderman Derrick Crane announced that in committee they chose and recommended the Dennison Ford offer for two reasons:

1. It is a newer model.

2. It has more cargo room. The city engineer has a lot of equipment that he carries around to sites.

The council unanimously accepted the Dennison bid on Sept. 7.

Graue opened his comments at last night's meeting by saying: "I heard you prefer a Ford truck. That's fine. We've got a pretty good Ford dealer about two miles out of town. I think the phone system works very well. You could have called local dealers and said, 'Hello, Jimmy Xamis. We didn't get a bid. Can you come down here and give us a bid?'"

He went on to say: "When you buy locally you're making a reinvestment. I'm sure you've heard the chamber's comment of $1 spent locally reinvests five to six times that amount through property taxes, city and county sales taxes, wages, and employee taxes."

The vehicle currently being replaced is a 1991 Caprice wagon. Graue challenged if the council researched how much they would save on a 2005 over a 2004 purchase. "It wouldn't make a nickel's worth of difference be it 10 or 12 years out," he said. If you compare a 1991 to a 1993 vehicle today, values would depend on how the vehicles were cared for.

In addition he pointed out the other benefits of supporting local businesses, using his own business as an example. "Our company supports schools, school clubs, parks, the park district, social services and many other not-for-profit organizations," he said.

Graue said he did a three-year review, and their company has paid $2,238,452 in local taxes. "It just doesn't figure. Do the math. How many trucks will that buy?" he challenged.

Graue salesman Dave Renfro also took the podium. After crediting the company for their goodness to the community, Renfro launched into some of the details that he'd like the city to consider for the future.

If you're going to buy something, you need to consider what it is going to be used for, he said. He asked if there was something that would not fit into the Chevy S10 Blazer that was proposed.

City engineer Mark Mathon explained that a major consideration in the choice was that the cargo box currently used in the Caprice station wagon fits quite well in the Explorer with the addition of other equipment such as tripods and rods.

Alderman Marty Neitzel asked if the cargo space of a TrailBlazer (which was not bid out) would be larger than that of the Explorer.

Renfro said, "Yes, it is."

The Graue bid was submitted according to the requested specs. The company asked that the city consider modifying their procedure in order to allow for more open negotiations.

It doesn't matter whether you buy from us or someone else, buying locally is important, Graue said.

Mayor Beth Davis responded: "I don't think anyone up here doubts how important that Graue has been to this community. We're very much for economic development and keeping our dollars here. The specs didn't come back the way we sent put them out. We could have called as you have suggested. Other companies didn't respond to bid requests."

Graue conceded that they should have had a representative at the bid discussion to represent themselves.

He concluded: "We're not just talking about cars. We're not up here tonight to get this bid back. It's gone, it's done, it's down the road. But please ‘think' in the future."

Alderman Dave Armbrust said he was disappointed that the other local dealerships, Xamis and Row, didn't submit bids.

Alderman Verl Prather said that some years ago there was a practice of hand-delivering bid packs to local businesses to be sure they were aware of the bid requests. This will begin again. He recommended that businesses involved in future bidding monitor bids, question specs and negotiate with the city about those.

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