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Columbia County ready to resume CEDC funding

Nov 20, 2015 6:10 am
Parry Teasdale is reporting in the Columbia Paper following a recommendation by its Economic Development Committee this week the Columbia County Board of Supervisors appears ready to resume funding the Columbia Economic Development Corporation. County payments that support the operations of the not-for-profit CEDC were suspended earlier this year after a state agency found some members of the CEDC board had potential conflicts of interest related to the expansion project of the Ginsberg’s wholesale food company.  A draft of the new contract between the Board of Supervisors and the CEDC calls for the county to pay the CEDC $327,750 by the close of 2015 and a total of $437,000 in 2016. Ancram Supervisor Art Bassin, a member of the Economic Development Committee, said Tue., Nov. 17, that the steps taken by the board president Tony Jones and interim executive director Michael Tucker had “changed the tone of the conversation” concerning CEDC and that the board seemed likely to adopt the new contract. At the CEDC membership meeting last week Jones introduced what he called a “reinvigorated” agency, complete with a new slogan: “Choose Columbia… For Business. For life.” A draft of the new contract is available at the CEDC website, www [dot] columbiaedc [dot] com. Read the full story in the Columbia Paper.