SEBASTIAN — For more than a year, Sebastian’s Chamber director has been overseeing a county organization tasked with encouraging economic development, but that doesn’t mean she’s been targeting Sebastian or Fellsmere projects.
“I’m not thinking of one municipality or the other,” says Beth Mitchell, sitting in her office at the Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce building in Sebastian’s designated riverfront redevelopment area. “It’s the overall good of the county.”
“The only way to be successful with economic development is for everyone to work together,” said the long-time Fellsmere resident whose ties to Vero Beach extend even beyond her work on the Prefabricated Erosion Prevention (PEP) Reef project in the 1990s. Whenever municipalities compete – “no one can be successful.”
Already into her second term as the chair of the Indian River County Economic Development Council, Mitchell hopes to tackle the list of tasks County Commissioner and council liaison Tim Zorc has provided.
Zorc would like the council to discuss the possibility of establishing a foreign trade zone and expand the county’s existing enterprise zone, to name a couple.
Mitchell expects those discussions to be held in the coming months.
“I welcome guidance from the County Commission,” Mitchell says, noting that it helps the council know and understand what it is important to the commission before the council crafts recommendations to the board.
Over the last year or two, the main function of the Economic Development Council has been to forward recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners regarding jobs grant applications.
Businesses looking to hire employees and pay more than the average salary can apply for a grant from the county. That grant serves as an incentive to not only entice businesses to locate to Indian River County, but also to stay in the county.
The council recommended approval of all six jobs grant applications last year; the commission concurred. Of the six, four were existing businesses.
“That’s why it’s such a good program,” says Helene Caseltine, a member of the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce and the county’s economic development director.
Last fiscal year, the program has resulted in nearly 190 jobs created.
Companies receiving jobs grants must prove the jobs were created at the salaries listed in the grant applications before receiving the county money.
The companies, combined, will boost the county’s coffers through taxes, payroll and capital investments.
Caseltine says the total investment in construction and the like is an estimated $22 million.
The kind of investment would improve properties, increasing property values and result in more paid to property taxes, helping to offset the jobs grant expenditures, Caseltine says.
Mitchell admits that much of the council’s focus has been on jobs grants as of late, but that follows more than a year of work crafting the county’s economic development plan and helping the municipalities do the same.
“We’ve always encouraged the municipalities to follow their own path,” Mitchell says.
Sebastian crafted its plan in 2007 and Fellsmere followed suit shortly thereafter.
“It’s pretty unusual,” Mitchell says of the cities having their own plans of action but notes that each city has its own unique attributes to market.
Representatives of the county’s municipalities sit as members of the council, weighing in on the various development projects that come before them.
While most councils, boards and commissions consist of five to seven people, dealing with nearly two-dozen people with different backgrounds and interests is a challenge, Mitchell says.
“That’s just a different ballgame.”
Members on the council, Mitchell and Caseltine included, say there has been interest all around the table in the projects that come forward – not just interest for those in their respective communities.
One of the newer members on the council is Fellsmere Councilwoman Sara Savage, who has attended just one meeting. She did serve on the Economic Development Council several years ago, though. Savage owns and operates a bait shop in Fellsmere.
Along with vetting jobs grant applications and helping to craft economic plans, Savage says the EDC was instrumental in developing other incentive programs, such as tax abatements.
Businesses expanding their existing facilities could lock in their property value at the current rate for a time and not have to pay the increase in property taxes from the expansion and improvements.
“That spurred us on to do a little more,” Savage says of the EDC’s tax abatement program.
Fellsmere was the first municipality in Indian River County to establish a similar program.
Savage says what she suspects she’ll get out of the meetings is finding out what it going on outside of Fellsmere and being able to bring that back to her own city council.
The one thing she’d like to see the Economic Development Council do, though, is branch out its membership and include those who represent the lower wage jobs – the “working man.”
She says it would be good for the council’s members to know what the smaller businesses are facing and what they’re doing with their limited resources.
Former Economic Development Council Chair Scott Carson, who represents the real estate industry through Treasure Coast Sotheby’s International Realty, says he’s enjoying being back on the other side of the table.
“I kind of like being a member,” Carson says. “You can talk more.”
As chair, he says it was difficult for him to discuss the matter at hand and facilitate the meeting.
“I can say what I want about things,” he says.
As for having Sebastian’s Chamber director as the chair, Carson says Mitchell runs a tight meeting and keeps everyone on task.
No stranger to government meetings or to leadership roles, Mitchell also chairs the Sebastian Inlet District, serving as one of Indian River County’s two elected commissioners on that special tax district board.
“She runs a good meeting,” Carson says. “She does a really good job.”