Thank you, Tom Fullerton. We have been very fortunate in recent years for the excellent leadership of several Toms at the Development Corporation, and, although he cannot be with us today, we’d like to start by acknowledging the dedication of Malcolm Tom Myers and the years he spent on our board and as an officer. We also experienced a great run with Tom Hesselmann as our chair for the past several years, and we are now in the capable leadership of Tom Fullerton. And, by the way, we’ve got Tom Determann coming up.

This is also an appropriate time to be appreciative of the long and on-going efforts of the team of Steve Howes and Dan Jefferies. You will be hearing in the next few minutes of how our strategic partnerships have been working on sites and resources that continue to help us expand and attract new investment and quality jobs. Steve worked hard with the new Clinton Business Park Development Corporation, which is a result of our alliance with the city and chamber. You’ll be hearing more about that in a minute from Dennis.

Dan Jefferies has worked with us ever so long, and you’re going to be hearing more later about our new Lincolnway Rail Port. And, Dan, we really appreciate all of your experience and efforts. Along with these gentlemen go many other professionals, consultants and other unsung heroes.

These include Snyder and Associates – you know them from Mill Creek Parkway and 5th Avenue downtown. They will continue to work with us on Lyons Business and Technology Corridor.

Then there is Howard R. green Company / Liberty Square, US Highway 30 and many Washington, DC trips; Shive Hattery, our long-time partner in Manufacturing Meadows III and the study that has led to Lyons Business & Technology Park and the Lincolnway Rail Port.

New consultants are at work at our airport on a new master plan, and we should acknowledge Mike Nass, our airport director, and Randy Clegg, chair, and the rest of the commissioners there who we are working with for development, too.

We have a new Harts Mill Road connection to Manufacturing Meadows III, and I believe, as our program unfolds today, that you will see a great deal of mortar that helps hold the masonry together, and these are all people who know and care about Clinton area economic development and what it takes over time to make it work.

Our first presenter today is Dennis Lauver, president of the Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce. As CADC involved many of you in the Shive study nearly a decade ago, it became apparent that, to be competitive in the 21st Century, we would need to greatly expand and have in friendly hands a growing diversity of market-ready, market-priced industrial real estate. The service industry, which provides the largest number of new jobs in any community’s industrial economy, needed to have a place to call its own locally. The Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce and local government leadership joined CADC in the efforts to access such a development in the creation and building of the Mill Creek Parkway, and Dennis will now update you on the Lyons Business and Technology Park and related infrastructure.

Thank you, Dennis, and also a special thanks to Allie Rittmer and his team for their special efforts and talents. Clinton Engineering and other contractors have done and will do super jobs here. Everyone can see that this is no longer a cornfield and that our efforts for attraction are based on reality and a great product.

This would be a good time to add that our efforts have not remained wholly within the city limits of Clinton. In fact, we’d like to recognize our board member Randy Balk and the cooperative efforts of the Fulton mayor and council, as well as Fulton and Albany financial institutions, for making it possible for CADC to acquire new industrial property there. For too many years, the Chewton Glenn project has tied up valuable industrial real estate, and the recent efforts of the Development Corporation and the city of Fulton have put new and adjacent property on the market and will compliment that industrial area as we hope, in time, this industrial area will come together again.

We appreciate the acquisition made by and expansion of the Fulton Corporation and ongoing growth and important jobs at Drives, JT Cullen and a number of other Illinois side industry.

One of the most important factors to come out of the Shive study, and, frankly, playing well off an industrial heritage reaching back nearly a century, is the further development of world-class industry following the river on the Iowa side that started with Clinton Corn Company, continuing downstream at DuPont in the 40’s, continuing along the Chicago to California mainline of the now Union Pacific Railroad, to such installations as Central Steel Tube and connection to the pipelines and parallel to the railroad 40 years ago when the Development Corporation and Stanley Engineering helped Hawkeye Chemical and subsequent site today become a reality. Any new installations today, such as Equistar / Lyondell, would be billion dollar investments.

As our good friend from Union Pacific, Wayne Borg, says, “You know, Hughie, once you leave Chicagoland, there really isn’t anywhere between there and Omaha where all of these resources and infrastructures come together.” In fact, ladies and gentlemen, let me give you just a little bit of a sell here. We have in this area two railroads, the Mississippi River, a great airport (but under utilized for corporate operations), at least three pipelines, three utility companies, massive amounts of natural gas and electricity, fiber optics paralleling the pipelines and rail and the ability, with partners such as Mark Cross and his redevelopment efforts regarding property we now refer to as Transtar and Crossroads Land Development, for connectivity from the river to rail to road and pipelines. A world-class industrial neighborhood!

As quietly as humanly possible over the last half decade, and with thanks to Dan as I mentioned before, we have been able to implement significant sectors related to the Shive report and place in these and other friendly hands nearly 1000 acres in this unique world-class industrial setting that includes the aforementioned property and our new Lincolnway Rail Port.

We plan, as the snow flies, to implement a targeted marketing effort in regard to this strategic industrial area. With research through the University of Northern Iowa’s Institute for Decision Making, along with support from gaming funds and Alliant Energy, we will create a prototype of new and kicked up marketing efforts that, as a planned expansion, you will hear about in Tom Hesselmann’s presentation.

Before we leave this territory, we must also thank our utility partners, both Alliant and Eastern Iowa Light and Power Cooperative, for their participation in the acquisition and, equally as important, the marketing of this area.

Now, we have often said that the expansions and retentions of our existing industrial base are just as important as attraction, and, to that end, every local government who supports us, city and county, have been great partners over the long haul both in terms of operations and programs. If we let our minds wander back even three or four years, we’ll recall things such as Y2K, 9/11, recession, war and elections. During that time, many of you have been disappointed in a lack of local industrial attraction results. However, you may be surprised to learn a few facts concerning growth in our existing industrial base. For example, Nestlé PURINA, which, you will recall, has expanded in its own footprint as well as through the Clausen Brothers distribution center to the north in Manufacturing Meadows III, has increased its payroll in excess of 30%.

We also continue to see new investment at UFP (former Moulded Fibre) with a third addition under construction, The Egging Company, Bemis, IPSCO and, as LaMetta will tell you in a moment, several of our long established industries. While we’ve been a little behind in getting the Lyons Business & Technology Park off the ground, and having promised 700 new jobs to go along with the building of the Mill Creek Parkway, existing industry in the Manufacturing Meadows has more than done its part with the creation of over 500 new quality jobs.

In fact, it is the daily pumping of life blood to and through these existing factories and service industries and the millions of dollars in paychecks every year that see our regional economy through good times and bad. This is also an appropriate time to recognize our partners at Clinton Community College – our vice chair Karen Vickers, economic development director Mark Kapfer and associate director Ilene Deckert. Ilene and Karen coordinate our existing industry visitation program, and last year our team met with the leadership at the following companies:

• Skyline Center, Inc.
• Clinton Herald
• Clinton Engineering
• Data Dimensions Corporation
• IPSCO Tubulars, Inc.
• Clinton Airport Commission
• Metal Tech
• JT Cullen
• Iowa-American Water Company
• Clinton County Board of Supervisors
• Collis, Inc.

We thank Ilene and the companies for the time to listen and understand their updated role in our economy.

Now, there was some really great news this past year that our mayor, LaMetta Wynn will update us on. LaMetta ….

Thank you, LaMetta, and thanks to all of our local officials for your support and leadership. We are pleased many of you can be with us today. In our conversations with many of you, we have come to understand and, as Mr. Hesselmann will tell you in a few minutes, whatever we’ve been doing in recent years, it ain’t enough. And, in fact, everybody else out there went through the same 9/11 and wars, and we know considerably more effort has to be made over the long haul for the Clinton area to reconnect and reclaim its prominence as one of the best places in the heartland to live and work and play. Speaking of play … Tom Hesselmann plays a lot of gold, but he has his limits. Several years ago, I interrupted his business tip in San Antonio on some CADC business.

Knowing he took his clubs along, I asked if he’d played a few rounds. He told me, “Hugh, it’s wet, it’s cold and it’s windy – I’ll play in any two out of these three, but not all three!”

Tom continues to be a great player for all of us, and I want to be sure we all recognize that he’s a team play, so, Tom, bring us up to speed and tell us about what’s happening and what’s going to happen.

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