BRPC Seeking 'Economic Development District' Designation For County
 BRPC's executive committee approved moving forward with the application to make Berkshire County and Economic Development District with the U.S. EDA. |
The designation through the U.S. Economic Development Agency and would increase the odds of projects in the county to receive grant funding.
Additionally, many districts receive annual funds to implement the countywide economic development strategy (CEDS) and, while there is a waiting list for the annual funding, a new board would oversee that activity. The Franklin Regional Council of Governments, for example, received about $70,000 from the U.S. EDA last year.
"We currently don't have an economic development district in Berkshires County. There are currently eight of these in Massachusetts," BRPC Planner Brian Domina said on Thursday.
The creation of the district requires 17 of the county's 32 municipalities to sign on to the application. Domina says permission would be given by boards of selectmen and mayors. He added that there is no financial or time commitment from each town, and BRPC's executive committee approved moving ahead with the application.
The district will require yet another board to be created to implement the funding and the strategy. The county had just created the CEDS plan in 2011, after years of not having an active one. However, recently, the CEDS committee which created the plan has had trouble with attendance. A new strategy is required in 2016 and that strategy would be the basis of operation for the new district committee.
"We would like it to be appointed by the CEDS committee," Domina said of the new board.
In creation of a new strategy, BRPC is looking to restructure the committee. According to Executive Director Nathaniel Karns, many of the regulations on how the committee is compromised have to be loosened. The committee had essentially grown to be too large and required more than half its members to come from the private sector, which ultimately made it difficulty for the group to get a quorum.
"We wanted some public officials at the table but then you are growing the number of private sector representatives," Karns said.
The private sector limit has been removed and at the next CEDS committee meeting, the group will discuss how to restructure for the next plan. The committee that moves forward from there would be responsible for the new CEDS and appointing board members to oversee the district activities.
In other business, early indications show that the comment period for the Northeast Energy Direct gas pipeline project may be extended. Tom Matuszko, senior planner with BRPC, said on Thursday that Federal Energy Regulatory Commission officials told him that the comment period is likely to be extended because of difficulties in scheduling a scoping session in New Hampshire.
"Once they hold that scoping session, they want to allow some time for people to provide comments," Matuszko said.
The typical comment period is 30 days so it is unsure when the clock will start ticking. Karns said the extension may "only be a matter of a week or two."
However, that extra week or so is still extra time for Berkshire residents to weigh in. FERC held a scoping session in the Berkshires but that was only three days after the proponents, Kinder Morgan, published some 6,500 pages of data about the project. State legislators and dozens of residents asked for a longer comment period to have time to review the documents.
The newly proposed public records law reform isn't sitting well with Karns, he said on Friday.
"I was cringing as I read it," Karns said.
Karns called the reform "going after a fly with a baseball bat." He said some of the reforms had gone too far in that it doesn't protect communities from unreasonable amount of work and paper.
He said recently BRPC had a request for a lot of research and photo copying, which ultimately cost more than an $60 of staff time. The reforms restrict the amount the organization can charge and allows the requester to repeatedly ask for the documents, which adds up the cost over time, he said.
He said the impacts those types of requests and the numbers could put a dent in the productivity, especially in small towns where clerks are often working only part time.
Karns, however, said he understands the reasons behind the changes but rather felt the changes were made to address only individuals and organizations being excessive. He said there was a request with the state police who asked for thousands of dollars to do comply with the request, which Karns says is very excessive.
"I'm sure there are excesses on both sides but let's find some middle ground here," he said.
Overall, he said the reforms cast too wide of a net.
As the books are closed in 2015, Karns said there is an end-of-the-year balance of about $9,200, which is a thin margin on a more than $2 million budget.
"Nobody can accuse us of squirreling a lot of cash away," he said.
The organization has had financial struggles over the years and has put in new procedures to keep spending in line. Additionally, the organization ramped up their billing efforts to help get money in on time. BRPC works with a number of contracts and grants from organizations across the state and often the outstanding bills are paid months after the work is completed.
However, some of the grants expected for the fiscal 2016 were not received so BRPC still has "a pretty sizable budget gap to close this year," Karns said.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito is scheduled to speak at BRPC's annual meeting on Oct. 15.
Tags: BRPC, economic development, gas pipeline, public records,
