Local business mentors, IDA report activity as county employment edges up

A volunteer small‑business mentoring organization and the county industrial development authority (IDA) delivered updates to legislators on local economic development work.

Representatives of the mentoring group described a multi‑month program of webinars and one‑on‑one mentoring with area banks that produced thousands of mentoring sessions and more than 85 business starts over five years. A presenter identified in the record as Laura described a four‑webinar series followed by three weeks of bank loan‑officer meetings to review participants’ business plans.

Bill Hook, chairman of the county IDA, told legislators the authority has moved to a modest office, hired a part‑time bookkeeper and recently brought on a part‑time executive director to institutionalize operations that had been volunteer‑driven. Hook discussed the IDA’s tools for attracting businesses, including mortgage and sales‑tax abatements, PILOTs and tax‑exempt bonds, and said staff are working on a commercial campus and an international market project, though global market conditions have slowed progress.

County labor statistics presented in the meeting showed a small increase in employed residents: the staff report listed 52,800 employed residents in February (most recent figure referenced) compared with 52,700 in January and 52,600 in February of the prior year, a modest upward trend.

Legislators praised the volunteers and IDA staff for outreach and encouraged continued coordination between mentoring programs, banks and the IDA. No formal actions were taken on the presentations beyond acceptance into the record.